Silly Love Songs

Do you sing to horses ?

I do...

At least, I sing to the horses in my family, the ones I know well. I don’t think I’ve ever inflicted my singing voice on a new acquaintance.

I sing when I’m cleaning stalls, when I’m picking manure in the paddocks, when I’m mixing feed.... and occasionally I’ll sing a song especially for the herd, or to a particular horse. “Happy Birthday” for example. Or, this happy, upbeat song (“My Girl”) from the Temptations that I sometimes sing to Desna to let her know how much I like her:

“I've got sunshine

on a cloudy day.

When it's cold outside I've even got the month of May.

I guess you'd say

What can make me feel this way?

My girl (my girl, my girl)

Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl).”

And there’s “Your Song” by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, snatches of which I sometimes sing to the herd (with particular emphasis on the last line):

“ And you can tell everybody

this is your song...

It may be quite simple, but now that it’s done,

I hope you don’t mind, I hope you don’t mind

that I put down in words

how wonderful life is while you’re in the world...”

Sometimes I just hum the tune that happens to be buzzing around in my head. Sometimes I sing old folk songs (mostly English, but also sometimes German ones). Sometimes simple children’s songs like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” or “Glory to the Mountain” are on the program, and, in season, carols. Sometimes I find a song that perfectly expresses how I’m feeling at the moment. And sometimes, I pick a song -- or a fragment of a song -- just to say “I love you.”

As I was mucking the other day, I got to thinking about the songs human beings have created to convey “love”. And I wondered which ones would actually convey “love” to a horse.

Many so-called love songs are really more about the singer's need and desire than love. The lyrics are some variation of “I want you, I need you, I can’t live without you, don’t leave me ‘cause I’ll die.”

Mmm. That leaves me pretty cold. You “love” me because I satisfy a need of yours? What happens to your “love” if I stop meeting your needs? What happens to me?

But, those sentiments are not so different than the fickle feelings some human “horse lovers” have toward horses, are they? As long as the horse meets the human's needs... the horse is wonderful. When he no longer does, because he is too old,or too slow, or lame, or too small for the human who has become bigger and taller... he is sold, discarded, replaced by a younger, faster, stronger, abler new “love.” That kind of “love” is, as Bob Dylan wrote, “just a four-letter word”. It is certainly not an expression of devotion or affection.

Figuring that horses don’t like those superficial,whiney, supremely selfish “ I need you” “love” songs any more than I do, they are not on my playlist, nor in my performance repertoire.

The love songs I sing to the horses express feelings more like the ones in Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are”:

“Don't go changing, to try and please me,

you’ve never let me down before...

Don't imagine you're too familiar

And I don't see you anymore.

I wouldn't leave you in times of trouble.

We never could have come this far...

I took the good times, I'll take the bad times

I love you just the way you are ......

..........

....I said I love you, that's forever.

And this I promise from the heart:

I could not love you any better

I love you just the way you are."

Unconditional acceptance, loyalty, and devotion are expressed in that song. Imagine having someone feel that for you. Doesn’t it feel good? Isn’t it soothing to your soul?

Of course, it is not the lyrics that are important... or even the act of singing that counts. It is the feeling that is trying to manifest, the emotion that wants to move into action.

It’s not so much what is done, but the spirit in which it is done. Any action can be tainted by anger, resentment, by apathy or inattention.

And, even the most ordinary actions and gestures -- grooming, trimming hooves, feeding -- can become extraordinary when they done out of love, with an open, listening heart.

On one of his audio tapes Deepak Chopra told a true story that has stayed with me for many years. After all this time, I’m vague on the exact details, but here’s the gist: There was a research lab in which some rabbits were being experimented upon. The rabbits were supposed to die from the treatment they were receiving, and most of them did. But there was one group of rabbits that was thriving despite the poison they were being fed. The experiment was checked and re-checked. Procedures were being followed to the letter... The only difference was a lab assistant. This woman loved the rabbits in her care. Before every meal -- meals which contained the poison that was supposed to kill them -- she would hold the rabbits for a while, cuddle them, express her love for them. Then she would feed them the poison.... and instead of dying, the rabbits thrived.

It’s not the action alone that counts. It is the spirit in which it is done.

It has become part of my practice when I go to the horses to follow the instructions of a book title I saw a few months ago before I do anything else. The book title was: “First, Let Love In”.

I do my best to let love in ... and to remember those thriving rabbits I heard about so long ago.

I can’t completely control poisons in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food my horses (and I) eat.... but I can open my heart. I can put my love for the horses into everything I do ... cleaning their living space, mixing their feed, trimming their hooves, touching them. And, as part of that, when the spirit moves me, I can sing to them... maybe Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs":

“...Some people think the world has had enough of silly love songs.

I look around me and I see it isn't so.

Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs

What’s wrong with that?

I’d like to know...

‘cause here I go again..

I love you...”

:-)