Dakota gets out
When we first moved to this land in eastern Washington, we kept our horses inside their corral for several months. We really wanted to preserve the delicate shrub-steppe environment, easily damaged even by humans walking, let alone horses running. We had plans to create a paddock paradise (a track system so they could move in a loop system and not be stuck in a stationary paddock).
For various reasons the track did not happen, and one morning in Sept 2019 I found Dakota, our renegade horse, outside of the paddock, all by himself, eating and grazing around the tiny home. He was totally chill, and when I called him, he looked up at me as if to say “What?" Can’t a horse eat in peace around here?” Realizing that he wan’t going to run away, I started letting him out more often, and pretty soon he was out every day. It also helped during feeding time, as the other horses would push him around, so having him out when they got their supplements helped to make sure he got to eat in peace.
As he got bolder and got to know our immediate property, he started exploring, and that’s when he went into our neighbors’ property. It’s right below us, and he can see the pond (dry in the past few years) and the more lush vegetation.
I found out soon enough he was not welcome anywhere on one particular neighbors’ property (the others were fine with occasional visits) and so started my challenge to try to reel him back. I could have installed a fence (we tried, but we were not experts at fencing and the ground being solid rock in the fall did not help); I could have kept him inside his corral, but if I kept him from having adventures he would start to check out and become dull. He needed the stimulation of movement, learning new things, testing himself, and feeling engaged with the rest of the world.
What started out as a request from neighbors turned into a drama as the months went by. Not much happened in the winter as all the snow on the banks on our driveway prevented Dakota from going too far. But as spring came, and the world got hit with Covid and all the complications of having to shut our business in Portland, the fence or the paddock never got done. We were barely coping day to day as most other people were.
Dakota persisted in running over to the pond whenever he could, and I was able to redirect his focus elsewhere, and thru the summer it worked pretty well. He stayed close to home, also because the heat was not conducive to running around. He actually spent hours outside, hanging out with us, eating grass, even dozing off at times. As fall came, Dakota became very excited with the cool breezes and again wanted to visit the pond….my neighbors became more upset with the violations.
Once I took Dakota around the other side of our property (northwest instead of east), thinking we could enjoy some romping on our property. But he proceeded to take off at some point and explore the area directly above the house of my neighbors. No! There was nothing I could do, in 30 seconds he had disappeared over the hill. Came back through the other side no more than 3 minutes later, but he was spotted and damage was done. The sheriff came to pay a visit soon after. At this point the relationship between us neighbors had deteriorated to the point that we were not talking.
After the sheriff’s visit, we installed a makeshift fence with only twine and portable posts, which actually Dakota respected. But it was temporary, and not all the way around (so he could have followed the fence line, and still sneak in). In the meanwhile, we got served papers from the local sheriff for “harassment and stalking”. Oh dear.
My small self was shaken by this drama, and the accusations in the papers were incredible, shocking, unreal. They accused my horse (MY horse!) to be a wild, dangerous animal, who could hurt or kill them. Or kill their dogs.
There was also bad blood between us from an incident where the husband shot a deer (illegally) on his property, and the deer came to die on our property. They never admitted to the killing, never answered my texts when I found the dead deer and I wanted some answers. Long story there, but to say, I had reasons to hate these people. Or at least to feel angry, upset, frustrated, and any other negative emotion you want to add.
But that’s exactly the problem, isn’t it?
Dakota near the beloved pond.
We blame others for our circumstances and feel victimized. We say and feel “us against them”. It’s happening all over the world. I had a week between when we got served with the papers and the time of the hearing (via Zoom of course). I had some time to sort myself out and feel into how I wanted to direct my energy. Did I want to be mad, defend myself, and formulate a statement full of accusations? Yes. But I didn’t. I kept reminding myself I wanted the truth more than I wanted to be right. This is how wars start. With us. With tiny things, like ‘don’t let your horse on my property’.
I kept asking for help from spirit and really wanting to see the truth. Initially I could not see my fault. Initially I could only see my side of the story, which was “there is nothing wrong with Dakota running off to the other side, and for me to go get him. It’s only a few minutes”. Then little by little I was able to peel away the layers from my eyes, and see more. I did not respect their wishes. I also saw how all our actions bring consequences. I was in this situation because of what I did or didn’t do, how I used my energy, what I said.
My driving force was see the truth, over and over again. I wanted to take this unpleasant gift I was given, and turn it into a nugget of gold. It was hard, because no matter what we are dealing with, we want to stay in our small self and be right. That is our immediate reaction, unless we have a much broader awareness of how things are. I am not going to say it was easy, but I did have the constant awareness that I did not want to react to them, I did not want to “match their energy”, I did not want to fall into anger, resentment, you name it. Ultimately WE carry that inside, all the negative emotions, and that is how dis-ease happens.
I chose to not react, and believe me, it was very hard, but I think I got the gift, because we did not have any more issues, the judge dismissed the case, and then we moved away! I of course never let Dakota out without a fence, and learned that our way isn’t the only way, as much as we would like to believe so! :)
