ABOUT ROMI
A horse with an intention to guide and teach, who lead her owner to a path that recognises the value of Life in all forms of Life.
Romi was a beautiful black mare owned by Sari Bernardo, the founder of Romi’s Way organisation.
Sari was a normal hobby dressage rider and lover of Nature and animals, but she did not understand the true nature of horses and other animals and naively thought humans are to look after them, teach them and ‘control’ them. She thought humans are superior speciesand able to control other species by applying 'humans preferences' before the animals own specific needs or preferences.
Romi lead Sari to a different path, starting to open her up to a different reality where the horse was a teacher and human a humble student of Life, Love and Nature. This path opened up slowly, by Sari starting to realise that Romi seemed normal, acted well and was obientent, but somehow her light was not shining and she seemed sad or passive inside. Slowly, with small actions where Romi demanded Sari to seek and try different solutions - such as softer riding methods to help her back aches, more natural and low sugar food to support her nutritional intakes and different language to communicate than what humans are used to. In all small ways, Romi was demanding subtle ways and more BEING together rather than DOING together. And very promptly her owner started to realise what she has not seen throughout the years and how naive she was thinking horses and animals ‘need’ our teachings and guidance - and how much this thinking was limiting her own understanding of reality and purity in Life. Sari started to see Life differently and the empahty, compassion,Love and respect towards all forms of Life started to grow inside her, starting to guide Sari's daily Life and influence her decision making.
Romi opened up a new way of being and living for her owner, which snowballed and expanded to all areas of her Life. Romi started to influence the way she looked after herself, the way she was judging about herself turned into more compassionate and healthy self-love, the way she was eating became organic considering environment and wellbeing of of life forms. And the relationship between Romi and her owner became balanced, subtle, respectful and open to exploring unknown together. She started to understand what causes balance and what contributes to imbalance in the world.
Romi was tragically killed by a hunter, who "mistaken Romi for a wild boar" in November 2016 Poland at well known dressage stables Grodno Dwor http://www.kjgrodnodwor.pl/, where the owners were simultaneously arranging hunting tours (and still do). She was shot during daylight hour while being in a paddock with her foal and another horse by same owner. The stables never took any responsibility and the Polish court ruled the shooter innocent in August 2018 against all evidence and logic.
While Romi left her body at age of 10, her legacy lives every day and influences the way Sari sees the world (inner and outer). Romi’s Way was established to honour and continue the path Romi showed to her hoping to inspire other humans to seek for better balance between people, animals and environment. Hoping to build a world where animals anot not suffering in human hands , nor used in entertainment, tourism or sports that cause them pain or harm. Hoping to build a world where environment and beautiful Nature we have in this planet is not harmed, abused or used to serve human greed, habits or consumerism.
In a loving memory to the ‘larger than Life’ character of Romi, Romi’s Way was crafted to bring humans closer to the natural world.
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Romi's Way was a way of beauty, love, compassion and harmony for all living beings.