H is for Horse

Dreaming is great! But in the past few months I've had some rather vivid dreams. And a strange new habit has developed, I'd say, in about the past year. If I try to "oversleep" or sleep-in, I will have a nightmare. This happens to me every time I try it on a weekend. I used to be able to lie languidly in bed until at least 10am, and I LOVED it! Now, if I try, I wake up from some awful nightmare. Not necessarily as awful as the "Ax murderer stalking and trying to kill you and you are just running in place" nightmare, but still more upsetting than the "Oops, I didn't hear my alarm for my final exam" nightmare.

One thing that never happens to me, is that I never have recurring dreams. Well, I don't think so, since most dreams fly out of my head like helium out of a leaky balloon. But for the past two nights I've dreamt that I was riding a horse. The first one was especially glorious - I was astride a large horse, and we were galloping at an incredible speed through the streets of where I lived (it kinda looked like Madison, but coulda been anywhere). Although we were going at top speed, I was still comfortable and in complete control, and of course, utterly thrilled with the ride.

Beau, who raised horses for many years, has often told me that riding at that speed (irl, of course *cough*), is a bad idea. "When you're going that fast you're no longer in control of the horse. It's dangerous and anything can happen." I hate hearing such practical statements, since as a city girl, I have often fantasized about galloping off on a beautiful horse day after day. I don't think I'm one of those crazy thrill seekers, but I have gotten rather bored on those "only follow the ass in front of you at a snail's pace" horses they sometimes give you in commercial stables. I want to fly! I don't want to hear it's a bad idea!

This usually brings to mind the memory of me on a beach in Phuket, Thailand, where I was out on a horseback ride with a bizarre young Thai man (the guide), and how I'd envisioned myself galloping along the beach like I was in some kind of douche commercial. In reality, although we were galloping along the beach, my lack of equestrian skills resulted in my not being the blonde in the douche commercial, but more resembling a large sack of potatoes bouncing up and down rather violently on the poor horse's back. At some point during my pogo-stick fest, my wallet even jettisoned out of my bag and was lost forever to the sea. Glamorous.

But this was a dream, and in dreams, everything's perfect. I'd love to have them again, but I doubt that could happen, and though I've always wanted to seriously get into lucid dreaming, I've never taken the time to do it. So instead, I went online to the 8 gazillion dream interpretation sites to find out what riding horseback signifies. I mean, to have the dream two nights in a row must mean SOMETHING, right? Well, the answers were varied enough that I no longer have any idea what it means. Oh well.

INTERPRETATIONS:

If you are horseback riding it suggests that you are self assured and feel a sense of control in your daily life. (Nice, but not necessarily true).

To dream that you are riding a horse, denotes that you will achieve success through underhanded means. You lack integrity. (Well, crap).

Riding a horse is quite interesting. Horses are wonderful creatures which stir great passions within us. So riding a horse we are showing great passion in the course of our life. We are consumed in our ambitions and determined and resourceful. It also shows great skill - riding a horse is an intensely skillful ability. (Thank you, but I'm still not sure what this means).

A dream that you're riding a horse represents the way you're taking responsibility to "guide and manage your life" right now, or the way you have been recently. The rider represents you, the horse represents your life and and your life circumstances. How well are you taking care of, guiding, and taking responsibility for the horse in the dream, and what does this say about your life? Try gentle horse-whispering, not managing by force. (Well, I'm controlling my "life" really well, but I seem to be going rather fast....not true...but interesting).

The horse denotes freedom and most of the symbology of dream horses derives directly from this. E.g. riding a horse means controlling or taking someone else's freedom. (Wait, taking someone ELSE'S freedom?? Ugh).