I Appreciate

The last opportunity I had to write, I said I would tell you what I am FOR, and asked you what you prefer, like, advocate, are "for." I believe you could learn much about me from my preferences. You may conclude I am inspiring, or abnormal (I do hope so!). I do not concern myself with how others view me unless they are a horse, so you may keep your opinion to yourself, or if you enjoy what I advocate, join me in creating more! In reading my "likes," however, you will learn much more about yourself, reflected in this jotting. This may be the first time in your life you have begun to ponder your preferences in this way. Many of us prefer to notice, even list, the things and events throughout our day that we do not like. Instead, let's start our next co-creation; and I would appreciate your comments at the end, or over here on Facebook, underneath the pink rose. 

I love Planet Earth. I have an thesis of reasons why. Another time, perhaps!

I love the ocean. Water. Ice. Waterfalls! Clouds, snow, forests, plants, jungles. I'm for the bush. Diversity. I appreciate the countering of negativity that all species other than my own offer. I admire nature. Awe.

Wings of Life by Louis Schwartzberg

I could, and have lived, in many places, but I choose to live in Serpentine, Western Australia. This is the highest praise for a location I can offer. I'm for Serpentine because it meets my needs, and on the outskirts of a city, is not difficult for people and horses to visit. I'm definitely for Heartland. My home, and home to not only my herd, but much wildlife, from dung beetles (I'm definitely for dung beetles!) to Ibis (who eat the dung beetles). I interact with my local village and my country in a way that creates only experiences I wish to receive, for example I do not break the laws of the State I live in, so I'm for the law; until it proves to be an ass. I love colour, so I'm all for painting your house the colours of the rainbow, and I did! I'm for rural living, growing vegetables, edible plants and accepting evolution. I plant trees, nurture soil, minimise chemicals and I'm even kind to some weeds!

A Heartland rose in October, grown for their beauty,
scent & because the horses,
Robert Smith Rabbit, and wild birds love to eat them.

I am for the positives changes that my predecessors created for me to now enjoy. People like Boudicca, Marie Curie, Jane Goodall and Alice Walker; I am for diversity, racial and sexual equality, freedom from dogma. I am for people to have experiences and relationships, and be permitted to have any negative experience they may choose, so that they may learn from it and make alternative choices, just like the rest of us!


I'm for fun. For singing even if you think you can't, dancing like no one is watching, art, creativity, comedy and play. I deliberately share the things I like that moved me, to spread the feeling.

Close to my heart, and I have felt this way since birth, is equality with other animals. I don't eat animals, I share the planet with them. I'm for contributors and I'm for children - Masters every one. 


This brings me to my joy, my passion, my calling - Horses, teaching and learning. I am for others to feel good too. I'm for passion!

I'm for a natural approach to animals, and I believe in sharing this attitude with as many people as possible, to effect lasting change and transformation. I'm for riding horses with their permission, free of discomfort, comfortable tack. I'm for barefoot and bit-less horses. I'm for friendship, partnership, reverence and appreciation. I'm for listening to the horse, valuing her opinion. I'm for bodywork. I'm for nutrition delivered in a bio-available way to grazing, free-range horses. I'm for a horse as a member of your family, for her lifetime, cared for in old age. I'm for foals spending as long as they need with their mother, co-parenting young horses, noticing who their friends are, play-dates and sleepovers, holidays on large tracts of land, exposure to a herd and rocks and bodies of water like a river or the sea. 

Bachelor Boy & I at Naval Base Horse Beach, January 2006

I commend people reaching for joy, consciously finding their way back to who they are, their heart. Rediscovering their guidance. I'm for the horses of these people, who are challenged alongside their human. I'm for compassion.

I'm for reviewing my preferences every moment, and changing my mind. 

And I'm for resonance. If you find me, are vibrating at a similar frequency to our herd here at Heartland, I'm for you. XJ

“That night he dreamt of horses in a field on a high plain where the spring rains had brought up the grass and the wildflowers out of the ground and the flowers ran all blue and yellow far as the eye could see and in the dream he was among the horses running and in the dream he himself could run with the horses and they coursed the young mares and fillies over the plain where their rich bay and their rich chestnut colors shone in the sun and the young colts ran with their dams and trampled down the flowers in a haze of pollen that hung in the sun like powdered gold and they ran he and the horses out along the high mesas where the ground resounded under their running hooves and they flowed and changed and ran and their manes and tails blew off of them like spume and there was nothing else at all in that high world and they moved all of them in a resonance that was like a music among them and they were none of them afraid neither horse nor colt nor mare and they ran in that resonance which is the world itself and which cannot be spoken but only praised.” 

- Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses