Balance

My last blog addressed the issue of the cancellation of the HBO show LUCK.  I want to be clear about the fact that my opinions are mine personally, and in all fairness, I didn’t watch all the episodes.  My criticism of LUCK was never aimed at the issue over the deaths of the horses, and I thought I made that point clear.  It was about the negative image that is too often projected about the people who love the industry and the horses that are the basis for that industry.   Morality and integrity of the subjects portrayed, or lack of it, was not the reason I talked about the show.  Balance was.

I suggest you read this morning’s The Paulick Report and the article entitled “Milch, Mann discuss cancellation of Luck”.   The interviews with Luck’s creators show the challenges that the world of horse racing has in portraying the reality of the business.  I believe that the events that led to the cancellation of the HBO series were unfortunate accidents.  As for being negligible, I cannot make a judgment call, because I wasn’t there. 

Balance in any situation is always an issue, and a difficult one to juggle with so many different personalities and factors involved.  And at each end of the spectrum there are always fanatical extremists wanting to make a point.  No doubt PETA will be at the upcoming Summit of the Horse in Oklahoma also.  Again, it's all about BALANCE, and with extremists on either side, it is a difficult thing to find.

As the saying goes, "stuff happens".  I've seen some pretty freaky things happen to horses both on and off the racetrack.  They are bound to, no matter how many precautions are taken.  I can attest to a fractious horse just coming out of the chute and on to the track one morning that gutted itself on the end of the pipe rail, and then  took off, to everyone's horror,  leaving a grisly trail in his wake before collapsing.  It was no-one's fault; but no less tragic or graphic, either. 

We live in a world of polarities, and as long as we do, we all have to make an effort to find and hold middle ground.  Balance.

Luck Was No Lady

Most anyone associated with the horse business has by now heard of the HBO series Luck being shut down, following the third death of a horse used during the filming of the show.  There have been several conjectures made that the show was already facing an uncertain future, even if the deaths had not occurred during production.  Santa Anita owner Frank Stronach was already worried about Luck's portrayal of racing.  He was quoted as saying, "I'm just disappointed because it puts sort of an ugly face on the whole point of horse racing."

Sort of?  Ya think?  Frankly, after viewing the first episode, it didn’t take three dead horses to convince me to turn the TV off!  As a professional trainer who has lived that lifestyle, I know there are still many dedicated horsemen and women who are committed to making an honest and ethical living on the race track.  And the bottom line for most of them is that it is still all for the love of the horses.  I can personally attest to the fact that it certainly isn’t about the money to be made.  I.R.S. records of individuals involved in that industry can back me up on that!  My brother the tax accountant quit asking me if I was crazy a long time ago. 

            The “Entertainment” business has for years exploited the darker side of many different professions as a means of attracting more impressionable viewers willing to spend more money on sponsors.  The film industry has in the past been challenged to portray the truth about the people and the animals involved in the profession of horse racing.  Few directors, producers, and certainly few actors and actresses have ever sat with their feet in the irons, the rubber-wrapped reins in their hands, and felt 1200 pounds of beauty and power underneath them during a light breeze down the stretch in the early morning mist. 

Luck was an unbalanced portrayal of the darker side of horse racing.  Horse racing has been declining for several years, and this type of film has done nothing to turn that around.  It's no secret that the horse racing industry is in trouble, either.  Purses have dwindled, and at some tracks the races are getting harder to fill simply because there are fewer breeders, trainers, and owners, which translates to fewer horses making it to a race.  This is due much in part to the state of our economy, but not all of it.  While annual viewers of the Kentucky Derby and Breeder's Cup races show there is still public interest, the sport is struggling to bring new people into the industry.

            Television producer and President of the Women's Horse Industry Network, Catherine Masters has come up with an idea to properly educate people about the true nature of the sport of horse racing.   Masters, who is an avid horse racing fan, states that she has found some of the most incredibly talented and passionate people in the world are women who are involved in the horse industry, and she feels their lives should be showcased in a mass media way.  Consequently, her idea has given birth to a new television series, soon to be aired, called "Luck Be A Lady", which she feels will do that and a whole lot more.

            Masters, a former sports marketing consultant to some of the top sports companies in the world, says that the more people see of horse racing in a positive way, the more they will become fans.  I agree.  Horse racing is not just a sport for the wealthy. "If horse racing and the horse industry in general is going to bring in new customers, there simply has to be more positive visibility in every area.  People need to get to know the women who are out there at the tracks or on their farms, dreaming of winning the Kentucky Derby.  Horse racing is not just about gambling. It's about getting a thrill watching your horse do it's very best," Masters states.

            The "Luck Be a Lady" television series is a weekly series which will be produced by entertainment icon Roseanne Barr’s Full Moon/High Tide Production Company. It will also be hosted by a well known horsewoman celebrity, Elizabeth Shatner. And, famed jockey and network commentator, Donna Brothers will host a weekly segment. "We have a lot of pieces to the puzzle in place and we know they will go a long way in making this series wildly successful," she adds.  

Pre-production is now underway and Masters thinks they will have the majority of the pieces to the puzzle together within the next 30-60 days. She is out raising funds to produce the series and starting to pitch it to the networks. She has made pitches to OWN, Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet and GAC. She hopes that the series is so well received that she can expand its content to include other areas of the horse industry in future programs.

To that, I say “You go, girl!”  I’m standing right next to you!  Because on the other side of the dark side is Light.  It cannot be otherwise.

THE SHIFT IN CONSCIOUSNESS; HOW IT’S AFFECTING OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH OUR HORSES

Several months ago, at one of the horse expos I participate in, Wayne Williams, who produces the TV program Speaking of Horses, filmed a video for me.  I wanted a new tool to explain what I do, and the different ways it works, to people who may need information and not know where to look.  I’ve been participating at the horse expos for many years as a vendor, and you can't explain how or why it works, not in two seconds or with signage.    So I'd been thinking about doing this to use as a tool to educate people about how vibrational medicine works. 

I didn’t want this endeavor to just be about me; I wanted it to be more about the people that I have been blessed to help over the m any years I have been doing this consulting and healing work. 

A client who had become a very dear friend of mine flew in during the expo to do one of the interviews for this video, and that was pretty neat because he was talking about his first experience of a healing I did on one of his mares years ago.  Tears were clearly evident as he did, and he got so choked up he could hardly speak during his conversation with Wayne about his experience.  That lent authenticity and validation to what he was sharing.  It's not something that anybody could have faked for a bogus testimonial. 

Allan’s mare had an eminently fatal case of colic.  His veterinarian had treated her, and then gone home, almost certain the mare would not survive the night.  As a last ditch attempt to turn this around and save his mare, Allan called and asked me to do a long distance healing on her.  He had listened to me speak at a horse expo in Oregon years ago, and while he had no real reason to believe that I could make a difference, desperation was the obvious motivation that drove him to pick up the phone and call.

At the time, he was in Salt Lake, and I was in California, but being in close proximity to a subject is not an issue for me; I have been doing long distance healing work for well over 16 years now.  To make a longer story short, I worked on the mare, and she survived.  Allan still rides her to this day, some 12 years later.

I mention this because this healing work that I, and many others do, is hard for most to comprehend, or even believe in.  It’s not tangible enough for the average person to even consider possible.  Yet it does have a viable place in this changing world we live in.

What the Shift is about as it relates to our relationships with our animals.

We, as humans, are beginning to change the rules and the structures of the game in our relationship to the earth and the animals we share it with.  We are beginning to make a distinction between layers of consciousness that we have been held hostage within for eons.  Many of us are experiencing an expansion of consciousness.  That is to say that we are recognizing that there is a distinction between former, accepted ways of thinking and believing in the past, and a new awareness.  We are literally moving from one reality into another, and, as we do, we take with us those that we are in relationship with.  This includes our relationships with our animals.

To validate this concept, one has only to look at the massive changes in our beliefs, not only in our world at large, but in our personal experiences within the horse world.  We are applying groundbreaking new methods and approaches to training styles in each breed and modality.  We also now view our relationships with our horses from an altered perspective; how we feel about them.  Most of us no longer view our live-stock as strictly beasts of burden or slaughter prospects.  Collectively, most of us have become keenly aware that there is more than a physical relationship to our horses.  There is also an emotional and a spiritual connection to them, and there is no separation within this mind-body-spirit relationship.  

I will comment on this further in my next blog.

Cleaning Out the Closet

For years, visionaries have written and spoken of a great shift in consciousness that is taking place on this earth plane.  As an empath, I have been keenly aware of this process.  I wrote about it in my first book, and continue to include my observations about it in my lectures and correspondence with people.   Does anyone doubt it?  Don’t. Great changes are taking place in humanity and the world at large, as a result of this shift; which brings me to this point in time.  We have recently made a transition from one gigantic cycle of time into the beginning of a new one.

Basically, this shift that I’m talking about has to do with an incremental transition from a third dimensional reality into the higher vibrational elements of the fourth and fifth dimensions.  And without clearing and healing the energetic blocks within our emotional bodies, which directly affect our physical bodies, we cannot make that transition into the higher planes of consciousness.  In other words, we can’t take all our old “stuff” with us.  It’d be like trying to gain altitude in a jet, with your entire house and all its contents in the baggage compartment.  It would never get off the ground.

A few weeks ago I decided, at the urging of a few close friends, to do a general healing for all of us on the subject of relationships.  Our intention was to focus specifically on ones we were aware we have close soul connections to.  Not necessarily those so-called soul mates of a romantic inclination, but anyone we might be aware we are connected to, that perhaps have issues that need to be addressed. 

As I did this at an agreed upon time, it was a very powerful and unexpected experience for all of us.  Both of my friends had very distinct experiences; one out-of-body.  Mine was not quite as dramatic, but it was very evident that something significant was taking place on an inner level, causing a distinct shift in my own personal energy.  

I hadn’t noticed anything personally of particular consequence following this healing, at least not right away.  But gradually, I began to notice that contacts from my past were beginning to reconnect with me, and it’s worth noting here that not only were they unexpected, they were, shall we say “less than congenial” in their former context.  One of them had ended quite badly.  Now, after 17 years of silence, and pain-filled memories, I received a letter attempting to explain why things “went the way they did” from an interesting perspective, as if this person from my past was seeking vindication for what was all just a big misunderstanding.  I will not elaborate on the circumstances involved here; digging up the old “He said, She said” dramas of our past experiences don’t contribute to positive growth.  Forgiving and letting go does. 

What I will say is that I ran across something in a random newsletter I received, that might add to what I believe is going on as a combined result of the healing exercises we did.    "As with any retrograde cycle (Mars in Virgo) things slow down .....therefore, unfinished business from the past returns to be dealt with, ...........etc."  There is more, of course, but I don’t want to get into the astrological details; it’s the timing I find so very interesting. 

All relationships with people on this earthly plane, good and bad, are agreed to on a soul level before we take our seats and begin to play out the roles.  Not all of our soul mates are loving ones on this plane.  But they do originate from spirit, out of unconditional love for us, to assist us in experiencing optimal contrast.  I think this was really a very significant event, though someone else might dismiss it as the effect of a guilty conscience.  I don’t see it in that context at all.  I think there was more to this healing exercise than even we first intended.  Hope your week was equally as enlightening.  Kat.