Robber fly - Nature photographer Thomas Shahan specializes in amazing portraits of tiny insects. It isn't easy. Shahan says that this Robber Fly (Holcocephala fusca), for instance, is "skittish" and doesn't like its picture taken.

Nature by Numbers (Video)

"The Greater Akashic System" – July 15, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) (Subjects: Lightworkers, Intent, To meet God, Past lives, Universe/Galaxy, Earth, Pleiadians, Souls Reincarnate, Invention: Measure Quantum state in 3D, Recalibrates, Multi-Dimensional/Divine, Akashic System to change to new system, Before religion changed the system, DNA, Old system react to Karma, New system react to intent now for next life, Animals (around humans) reincarnate again, This Animal want to come back to the same human, Akashic Inheritance, Reincarnate as Family, Other Planets, Global Unity … etc.)

Question: Dear Kryon: I live in Spain. I am sorry if I will ask you a question you might have already answered, but the translations of your books are very slow and I might not have gathered all information you have already given. I am quite concerned about abandoned animals. It seems that many people buy animals for their children and as soon as they grow, they set them out somewhere. Recently I had the occasion to see a small kitten in the middle of the street. I did not immediately react, since I could have stopped and taken it, without getting out of the car. So, I went on and at the first occasion I could turn, I went back to see if I could take the kitten, but it was to late, somebody had already killed it. This happened some month ago, but I still feel very sorry for that kitten. I just would like to know, what kind of entity are these animals and how does this fit in our world. Are these entities which choose this kind of life, like we do choose our kind of Human life? I see so many abandoned animals and every time I see one, my heart aches... I would like to know more about them.

Answer: Dear one, indeed the answer has been given, but let us give it again so you all understand. Animals are here on earth for three (3) reasons.

(1) The balance of biological life. . . the circle of energy that is needed for you to exist in what you call "nature."

(2) To be harvested. Yes, it's true. Many exist for your sustenance, and this is appropriate. It is a harmony between Human and animal, and always has. Remember the buffalo that willingly came into the indigenous tribes to be sacrificed when called? These are stories that you should examine again. The inappropriateness of today's culture is how these precious creatures are treated. Did you know that if there was an honoring ceremony at their death, they would nourish you better? Did you know that there is ceremony that could benefit all of humanity in this way. Perhaps it's time you saw it.

(3) To be loved and to love. For many cultures, animals serve as surrogate children, loved and taken care of. It gives Humans a chance to show compassion when they need it, and to have unconditional love when they need it. This is extremely important to many, and provides balance and centering for many.

Do animals know all this? At a basic level, they do. Not in the way you "know," but in a cellular awareness they understand that they are here in service to planet earth. If you honor them in all three instances, then balance will be the result. Your feelings about their treatment is important. Temper your reactions with the spiritual logic of their appropriateness and their service to humanity. Honor them in all three cases.

Dian Fossey's birthday celebrated with a Google doodle

Dian Fossey's birthday celebrated with a Google doodle
American zoologist played by Sigourney Weaver in the film Gorillas in the Mist would have been 82 on Thursday (16 January 2014)

Friday, December 18, 2015

Lone Arab woman takes the reins to tame horses on the Golan

Yahoo - AFP, Majeda El-Batsh, December 17, 2015

Druze horsewoman and trainer Raja Kheir leads a horse back to the stables
 on her ranch -- the only Arab centre in the area -- in the southern foothills
of Mount Hermon, north of the Golan Heights (AFP Photo/Jalaa Marey)

Majdal Shams (AFP) - The grey horse rears its head, rocking left and right, kicking its legs wildly. Sensing danger, Raja Kheir throws herself off and rolls on the ground.

The slender, brown-haired 32-year-old in white jacket and jeans tames horses -- not in itself unusual on the picturesque plains of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

What makes Kheir different is that she is an Arab woman, among the few, or perhaps even the only one from the area taking the reins.

Druze trainer Raja Kheir trains a stray 
horse on September 17, 2015 in the 
southern foothills of Mount Hermon, 
north of the Golan Heights (AFP 
Photo/Jalaa Marey)
Born into a conservative family of Druze -- an offshoot of Shiite Islam -- in the Israeli village of Beit Jann in the Upper Galilee, she now lives and works in Majdal Shams near Syria.

Horses are an important part of the culture in the region's ranches and cattle farms spread among the rugged hills and plains.

Since dawn, Kheir has been in a battle with three-year-old Qamar -- the moon in Arabic -- and eventually succeeds in getting a saddle on her.

When she rides Qamar for the first time, she focuses all her concentration but the horse bucks, causing her to throw herself to the ground.

Hours later, Kheir is making progress. She places her feet in the stirrups and digs her feet gently into the horse's side, repeating this several times while at the same time tapping the animal's stomach.

"It is not enough to put a saddle on a horse to tame it. The important step is to ride it," she tells AFP.

Days in the wilderness

Qamar still isn't ready to listen fully, and many attempts end with another roll on the ground.

But Kheir, who has been riding since she was six, is not discouraged. When she was a child, "everyone called me a tomboy because I wasn't afraid of anything," she says.

She used to spend days in the wilderness near her grandfather's home in Beit Jann, where horses roamed.

There, she says, "my relationship with riding began".

Her journey into taming horses really started eight years ago, when she took a course in the town of Pardes Hanna near Haifa in northern Israel.

Since then she has earned multiple diplomas: she can ride horses, train them and teach them dressage.

Along with a partner, she decided to set up a taming and training centre. Most of her clients are families who have bought horses and need someone to train them for them.

She also trains stray horses found in the Golan.

With Qamar, a stray who arrived only a few days ago, Kheir is in the initial stages -- convincing the horse to accept her presence and to enter the stable.

Horses "like to be free. They don't like to have anything on their backs," she says.

"So when I ride her for the first time she is afraid of me and I am also afraid of her. She doesn't know my reaction and I don't know her.

"When I feel she is going to hurt me, I throw myself off."

- 'Courage above all else' -

Once this hurdle is overcome, the slow process begins of teaching them to be ridden.

Horses are an important part of the culture in the ranches and cattle farms
 spread among the rugged hills and plains of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights
 (AFP Photo/Jalaa Marey)

"After you place the saddle on a horse it takes two to three weeks to tame them, though not to be able to ride them," she says.

It can take many more weeks for a former stray to get used to everyday things such as the sound of cars.

Kheir awakes at dawn every day to feed the 15 horses at her school in the Golan, near where several other centres are based.

They need to be fed by 7:00 am at the latest, she says, because something as simple as a late meal can upset a horse's stomach and even in rare cases be fatal.

For Kheir, the most important asset in a trainer is courage.

"If a horse feels your fear it will not accept you," she says. "But if he feels you love him, he will protect you."

Once confidence is gained, the rider then has control, she says.

Being a woman and from the Druze minority, she admits it can be difficult in the Israeli equine world which is dominated by Jewish Israelis and men.

When she and her partner set up the ranch -- the only Arab centre in the area -- they even faced acts of sabotage, with a horse and a foal poisoned and pressure put on some people not to sell to them.

"There was a real war against us," Kheir says, deliberately not naming the alleged culprits.

"But we've got all the official papers and our school continues."

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