From Gunny: Ambush Game

Disclaimer: Written while attending Carolyn Resnick's 2010 Waterhole Ritual Insider Circle Class. The following post is a combination of my own ideas and also reflects my personal experience, understanding, and application of material taught in the class.

The Ambush game is a ceremony that all horses know about and understand but only community-minded horses use. It is used to create respect in the herd. If a herd member becomes too self-absorbed and forgets about the community good, then a community-minded horse will come along and ambush them. Because community-minded horses are most aware in the herd they can pick a moment when the self-absorbed herd member has forgotten to pay attention to their presence and surprise them by chasing them off the spot they were standing on and claiming it for their own. Being chased off a spot in surprise causes an immediate change in attitude and that self-absorbed horse will automatically become less arrogant and more community-minded once again. In order to have peace and cohesiveness in the herd, there must be respect and the purpose of this ceremony is to create respect without conflict. Because only community-minded horses initiate this ceremony, the horse who was ambushed is reminded that they are in the presence of a community-minded horse and that they were caught being less aware. As more herd members become more aware, they become more community-minded and start to learn how to behave in the community realm more often. This ceremony is rarely used once community has been established but a community-minded horse will use it whenever it is needed.

The Ambush game puts the community-minded horse in control during that interaction because the Code says that if a horse initiates the Ambush game, the ambushed horse must give ground, it is not optional. Any horse that is startled is going to give ground as a first response. The community-minded horse gains rank or re-establishes the rank that the self-absorbed horse was questioning.

I have always been pretty aware of where Holly is and what she is doing when she is outside. This is because of the fact that I am a community-minded horse too. So, it is very hard for Holly to find an opportunity to initiate the Ambush game ceremony with me. I can remember one time in the winter when I was questioning my rank and I was napping in the sun. Holly had taken my blanket off and I was ornery with her when she came to do it. She left and I went back to my nap and forgot that she was even outside.

Another time just recently I was feeling a little arrogant so I was really absorbed in eating my grass and wasn’t feeling any need to pay attention to where Holly was.

Both these times she got me good because I totally wasn’t aware that she was behind me. So when she ran up and made noise, I jumped off my spot in surprise, ran forward a few steps and then turned around to see what had happened. Holly was standing there on the spot that I had just been occupying. This made me realize that she had just ambushed me and taken my spot from me and that I had been caught not paying attention. I felt embarrassed that she had caught me, a community-minded horse being less aware and decided that I should pay better attention to her. I also liked her even more after that.

Next week I will talk about another ritual that is used by community-minded horses to keep the attention of the members on each other and increase cohesiveness.