Eye To Eye Epiphany With A Wild Pony On Shackleford Banks

The little filly

The last time I had shared a direct eye-to-eye gaze with a wild animal was when a mother bear charged within 30 feet of where my dog and I were standing. She had looked me straight in the eye from a rather uncomfortably close distance and told me in no uncertain terms that I had gotten too close to her cubs. The language barrier had been broken, and the communication for all three species was clear.

My eyes said, “Forgive me, I did not see them there in the bushes”. My dog's eyes said, “I will promise not to move”, and her eyes said, “Stay where you are.” She looked back at her cubs running off deeper into the woods, then back at us. The eyes bore deeper and said, “Count to 100, do not look in our direction and then leave.” My dog and I did exactly as the bear's eyes had asked us to do.

After it was over. I was not scared but thrilled. I felt full of life. How cool that three species had broken through the communication barrier. This is the stuff that makes you feel the most alive.

Now I was on Shackleford Banks the evening of the last day. We had been sitting on the bank watching the sun going down when the first pony we had seen on Shackleford appeared over the dune. She was just over a year old. We had seen her grazing a distance from her band as we had walked to the beach earlier that afternoon. I had seen the chestnut stallion and the dark bay mare looking concerned about where she might be. The dark bay mare had whined for her. Now here was the filly standing in front of me.

She tried to walk towards me, so I widened the distance by backing up. She looked concerned. She wanted help. She looked right into my eyes, and I could tell she was asking me where her band was.
The communication came in through her eyes straight into mine. I did not try to filter it through my logical brain, which would have told me she would not understand my pointing.

I pointed, and my eyes said straight into hers, “They went that way, they are over those dunes in front of you.” She looked deeper into my eyes and then turned once more and looked at me as if to thank me. Then she wandered off in the direction I had pointed. I smiled. There was a connection, the kind that makes you feel not alone but a part of life on earth. Grounded in the truest sense by a universal language and connection to all living creatures.