PeaceHorse is the dream and passion of Thomas C. Schmidt
It is a life time experience having a partner. With people it ends usually because of disagreement or death. My partnerships with my horses have lasted until death parted us.
Tom had self-actualization explained to him by a professor at Boston University. Self-actualization is the greatest and highest of the needs that humans can satisfy. According to psychologist Maslow, there are five levels of need: physical, security, social, ego, and self-actualization.
I have attempted to define and create the life I want for myself that I would be willing to do for free because I would love it so much:
Working with horses and getting to train, ride and instruct and be instructed.
Working with horse people. Learning from them, teaching them, sharing joy and challenges, excitement, adventure, success and failure, and love for the animal itself. Sharing agape love with my fellow riders and participants in PeaceHorse.
Developing an ethic and values that are highly principled about how to treat horses and people, how to morally train animals and encourage peopl.
Developing foreign language skills and competency so that I can speak with and enjoy new friendships with people in many foreign countries.
Traveling around the United States and around the world. Seeing amazing things and meeting regular normal people who are wonderful. Meeting the special athletes in the horse world and helping them to be world leaders.
Encouraging other people who have different passions than I do, to trust that they are capable of creating a life of tremendous value and goodness for themselves and others by following their passions and creating their dream.
Limiting war. I know how horrible war is. I want as few people as possible to have to endure its horror and destructiveness.
Promoting peace. I believe it is possible that we all can get along, share with each other what we have that is extra or that we can do without. We can help others to create lives that satisfy their needs without hurting others. We can be co-dependent with each other.
We will create a school and institution and program here in Montana that people from all over the USA and the world can come to. Many of the services and instruction provided to the students will be by “subcontractors.” We cannot have a huge school with 150 horses and 15 instructors and the support staff for them and their students yet. Bit we can create a consortium of dedicated riding people with skills and training who can share what they know with the students. The facilities and equipment and tack and horses will be owned by various “partners” or ‘subcontractors.” The horse programs will evolve to teach what the riding students must know integrally for them to become sophisticated and caring feeling riders.
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My best friends are my horses. I want it to be my best friends are peace makers and their horses.
How do we teach peace? Everyone who has ideas is welcome to share what they have learned in their lives about how to make peace not war. We will learn about wars and the cuases of those wars and how those wars could have been prevented or reduced in size.
We will learn what individuals can do at all levels of settlement to prevent war and bring about peace between peoples. We will look at each of the factors of civilization and understand how each of those factors can be attuned to peace and not war.
What does a peaceful society look like? We will find out and try to become what we must be to promote peace. Through many techniques we will encourage each country to develop in such a way that it is has security and the needs of its people are met.
The “us” will be you and I. It will be people who believe in a vision of harmony with horse and rider and peace between nations and within nations.