Clan of the Horses/Hestenes klan – the energy

Some years ago I made a drawing in black and white of an open landscape bathed in moonlight. On the nightly sky I then drew the constellation Big Dipper (the plough/Karlsvogna) and someone pointed out to me that the constellation was facing the wrong direction, like a mirror image. My reply was, and still is: If seen from the other side, this is what the Big Dipper would look like.

What you see is very influenced by where you stand, by your point of view. There are always - at least - two sides to every story.

When women riding astride are depicted in art or described in historical and mythological records, we often find them where men traditionally have spent a lot of time and energy: In the battlefields, where a significant part of human history is written. Women included in these arenas are depicted as fighting shieldmaidens or as Valkyries, who bring the dead to Valhalla. And in some cases women’s presence have changed the course of history in eg battles or conflicts, like Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc) and Lady Godiva did - in their own unique way.

But these are known historical facts and legends well preserved. The story I want to share is a story that has never been revealed before; a story gathered from the unwritten pages of the history books and the paintings on canvases that were never used: Stories of horsewomen from a secret tradition, known as Clan of the Horses/Hestenes klan.

These horsewomen approach horses in a very different way. They use a soft-spoken language from another time, another place and another energy. You rarely find these horsewomen in the centre of attention. They have traditionally met in the woods, in the fields and on the steppes, far away from battlefields, tournaments and competition arenas, although there are historical and present exceptions.

You can recognize them by the bracelet some of them wear around their left wrist, but above all you can recognize them by the way they handle their horses. They are usually not very sociable when they spend time in the stable, and they are often regarded as a bit “strange” and somewhat "untraditional". They never use much tack on their horses and they seem to prefer trail riding (but their horses are often trained at very hign levels). You are not likely to bump into them in the forest because they tend to choose the paths less travelled, or the narrow paths made by wild animals. They often keep to themselves and they are likely to come to the stable at odd times, when few people are there. If they run stables they usually prefer to ride after closing time, when it is quiet and they can spend time with the horses without interference or interruptions. To these women, riding is meditation. Not static, immobile and rigid, but as part of the horse’s movements, with energy flowing freely and unhindered between horse and rider. Some think of them as loners, but nothing could be further from the truth. They are, however, very strict about what kind of human energy they allow around their horses whilst riding, since they mainly use energy to communicate with their horses.