Humility and the Horse
In the lunar calendar, the Year of the Fire Horse is associated with fiery passion and renewed energy that, when properly directed, carries us forward to new achievements. As martial artists, the Year of the Horse also presents an opportunity to reflect on ways that horses both demonstrate and help us develop humility.
Why is humility important to martial artists? Humility helps us maintain a growth mindset. Our martial arts practice can last our entire life if we want it to, but doing that means we must recognize that we don’t know everything, that our knowledge is always incomplete, that we might even be wrong sometimes. We are always willing to reexamine our practice and learn from our mistakes. We recognize that we can learn from anyone — beginners, masters, non-martial artists — if we are open to it.
There are many ways that horses can help us consider and practice humility:
- The sheer size of a horse is a humbling start. There is no doubt that a horse is bigger, stronger, and faster than any human counterpart, yet they choose to work together with people as riders, workhorses, etc. if we treat them with respect.
- Horses are extremely sensitive to human emotions. A person who approaches a horse with anger or fear will only have that reflected back at them. They must adjust their ego and their internal emotional state to develop a positive relationship with a horse.
- Horses require care and commitment. Cleaning the stables, feeding and brushing the horse, and caring for its health are equally if not more important than riding the horse. The horse is not simply a servant to the person; the person serves the horse through constant care.
- Horses can teach us resilience. To “get back on the horse” means to acknowledge that we fell off, literally or figuratively — the mistakes we made, the pitfalls we overlooked, the challenges we struggled to overcome. In the face of those things, we dust ourselves off, we learn from the past, and we try again.
Perhaps this is why the Horse Stance is so important across martial arts styles. It’s a physical practice that builds strength and grounding, and it’s also a symbol that evokes the deep sense of humility that is central to our growth and development as martial artists and human beings.
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