Talking with Horses


 
 
 
 Talking with
 HORSES
 COLIN DANGAARD
 Prelude
 In the hills of Malibu, California, a beautiful young college student with autism unwittingly uses her condition to communicate with her horse in a way that was common between humans and horses millions of years ago. For Emma, it just happens as naturally as breathing. Other modern people can also communicate like this today, but for most it is difficult, requiring training and concentration that is rare. The brain of modern man mantles his oldest brain—a cerebral structure that performs the primary functions in autism. This is Emma’s story. It is also the story of the evolution of the horse—and how man and horse learned to communicate.
 To horses and all the people they love
 Special thanks to the International Museum of the Horse, Lexington, Kentucky, for unbridled support—especially Director Bill Cooke and Curatorial Assistant Shannon Leva
 Foreword
 Colin Dangaard is not one put off by a challenge—not even telling the story of the horse through a mystical collection of characters like a jumping horse named Tower, an autistic girl named Emma, the Vikings, and Attila the Hun. All this while Emma falls in love with Zehun, a fantasy lieutenant of Attila the Hun, as she romances Jules, a handsome young man in real life, and then saves the family’s Malibu horse ranch. Talking with Horses will change forever the way you think of a horse. For more on Colin’s story, check the back of this book!
 Bill Reynolds
 Santa Ynez, California
 Colin’s book is the most unique and innovative insight into human and horse interaction of my acquaintance … a fascinating landmark.
 Henry Curry, MD
 Colin Dangaard is an expert—saddle maker, businessman, entrepreneur, journalist, and horseman. If you’re a horse lover, mule lover, or just casually interested in horses, get ready for an interesting and enlightening “ride” through this book. Colin uses all his senses, experience, and knowledge gathered through many years as a true student of equine to carry his readers through the fascinating and mesmerizing world of equine communication and history. His ability to weave all of his experience into a fascinating story makes this book one I guarantee will keep you up late at night reading and wanting more.
 Dr. Jerry Johnson Head of Psychology
 West Michigan State University
 This book has touched my heart greatly for the special needs children who are highly medicated because nobody wants to take the time to figure a more natural way. I am the mother of a special needs son, who is actually brilliant, but “different” compared with what people would call “normal.” Emma’s connection with her horse puts her in a natural place where she feels secure, safe, and understood. This is a story that reminds me to listen to my inner self. It has inspired me to connect more closely with my own horse Gracie, who is empowering me and thereby helping me be inspired by my gifted, but different, son Zac.
 Susan Williams 
 Westlake, California
 Talking with Horses—I couldn’t put it down. It has inspired me to open a facility using horses to help kids with autism and other brain problems.
 Ken Glaser 
 Nowthren, Minnesota
 Horse lovers and history lovers are in for a treat with this amazing book!
 Chris Davies, Australia
 Great job Colin. I’m a sucker for a good story, especially if it has a horse there. I couldn’t put this book down.
 Guy McLean, 
 Australia and USA
 Colin has illuminated rich and vast communication that exists between humans and horses. I got into horses as therapy for stress. After reading this amazing book, I now see how that works. Besides, this is a page turner, fun educational and revealing. And I love Colin’s gentle take on romance.
 Dr Nicoe Winner, 
 Beverly Hills, California.
 CHAPTER ONE 
 Sunday, January 17, 2010. The Santa Monica Mountains, California. A full moon, silhouetting rugged cliffs against a clear night sky. Emma Armbrust could read right now—if she had a book. She is riding her seventeen-hand horse Tower, a thoroughbred, with Man o’ War breeding on both sides. Emma Armbrust is eighteen years old, the horse ten years—which in human years makes Tower forty. Emma often thinks about this and marvels at how Tower doesn’t feel that old. Tower rotates one ear back in her direction, and she smiles; he knows what she is thinking. She had projected an image of a very old swaybacked horse.
 Emma pats his neck and says, “There now. I think you’re just as young as you feel.”
 The ear rotates back to a forward position. Tower is okay with that thought.
 “Come on,” she says, “let’s gallop up this hill. I know you hate to walk uphill.”
 She does not kick him or use the crop. She simply leans forward, ever so slightly, so her body does not whip back as Tower leaps into a flat gallop. But even before she leans forward, she knows he knows what she is thinking. He tells her this feels really good as the hill slips beneath at breathtaking speed. Tower’s hooves are muffled on earth softened by heavy rain. Like a dancer, he carefully negotiates deep ruts caused by running water. Fifteen minutes later, they crest the ridge on the top of a mesa, the sky so close it seems to Emma she could reach out and touch it.
 Emma feels Tower’s heart beating between her legs as he sucks in vast amounts of air. His nostrils flare like trumpets. His hot breath frosts the night. Way down in the valley below, Emma sees the lights of her father’s horse farm, where Tower was bred to race. But despite his impressive heritage, he was slow. Years later, when Tower was six years old and Emma thirteen, she started riding him, having given up her pony Nugget.
 Tower told her that he wasn’t slow at all; he just didn’t like the competition, didn’t like racing against his friends in the way people