If you were asked to make a list of all the people you love, how long would it take until you put yourself on the list?
Years ago, when asked this question, Tim Hayes didn't have an answer. But today, after working with horses for more than 30 years, he not only puts his name on the list, he puts it first.
When humans learn to love themselves, they become more compassionate. They become better parents, children, husbands, wives, partners, and coworkers. In fact, they have more successful relationships in general.
Over the course of his career learning about horses and horsemanship, and eventually teaching it to others, Hayes gained an understanding of the profound social skills evident in horse relationships. This is known by many as herd dynamics and includes what he names as 10 specific qualities:
- Acceptance
- Tolerance
- Patience
- Understanding
- Kindness
- Honesty
- Justice
- Respect
- Forgiveness
- Compassion
In Horses, Humans, and Love, his follow-up to Riding Home—the book Robert Redford called “A beautiful volume of healing and love between man and nature” and Temple Grandin said was “Essential reading”—Hayes explains how and why when humans emulate these 10 qualities of herd dynamics witnessed in horses in their own human relationships, they naturally express and thus demonstrate the true altruistic meaning of what we call “love,” both for others, and for ourselves.
Through his personal journey and inspiring stories of those he has worked with through the years, Hayes reveals how horses can teach us all how to compassionately reconnect with our shared global humanity and put an end to self-created, antagonistic, superficial human differences such as race, religion, nationality, wealth, and ideology. He shows us how horses have the ability to instantly remind us that we all share the same world, share the same fears and desires, and more than anything else, desperately desire to get along with each other.
In his thoughtful descriptions of his own experience and research, Hayes illustrates his spiritual and philosophical struggles to understand the state of the world today and how we each can work in simple yet impactful ways to make it better. His conclusions, having reflected upon and shared what he has learned through the horse, leave readers with an infectious optimism one might even call hope. His book, a gentle treatise for change from a remarkable horseman, will be enjoyed by all those seeking to improve their own lives and that of our global community.