Category Archives: horses, dogs & more

Mar31

the wild and the tame

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My friend Michele sent me this picture of the Mustang Nelson lounging in his hay.  Happy horse.

At the end of our time together this week I stood facing him, my hands softly stroking both sides of his shoulders.  Minutes passed, and I could feel his head coming to rest on my shoulder, his breathing relaxation.  Those moments felt holy, like a healing.  I am so blessed.

Most people that I speak to are unaware of the ongoing brutal culling of the fragile herds of wild Mustangs that still run free in Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado and other parts of the West.  The ongoing program of planned extermination of wild horses is well under way in the hands of the Bureau of Land Management in service of the cattle industry.  The helicopter drivers are paid per horse trapped, so there is no particular intelligence guiding the way in which the horses are chosen.  Many of the horses end up being shipped to Mexico for slaughter for the European meat market.  Slaughter is NEVER humane, and horse slaughter in Mexico is an unregulated, unimaginable horror.

As a ten-year old stallion, Nelson would have met that fate were it not for the generosity of Equine Advocates, a sanctuary in upstate New York.

If you have not signed the petition that I have up to the right of this post, please take the time to do so.  The plight of the few remaining wild Mustangs in depends upon our voices.  Not the voices of hysteria, but the steady voice of right action, of compassion and respect for all beings.  As Klaus Hempfing says, the horses are always innocent.  We must speak for them.

I am incredibly blessed to work with Nelson.  He is the anchor for many of my posts and has taught me many lessons about connecting being with horses to the rest of my life.  I do not believe that sanctuary or ownership by a human is a solution for all the wild horses, just as zoos are not solutions for all the endangered elephants.  We need the wild.  We need to feel ourselves in relationship not just to what is tame, but to the wildness within and around us.  The horses do just that.  As poet James Wright says,

Yet the earth contains

The horse as a remembrancer of wild

Arenas we avoid.

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Mar29

buddha horse

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I am not sure if he was meditating, but when I downloaded my pictures, there was this photograph of Nelson with his eye closed.  Over the months that I have known him, Nelson has become a pretty equanimous horse.  He takes things more in stride and I will often see him reading me – reading my movement, parsing what I am asking before responding.

My body has become more readable as well.  I can feel it as I get out of the car and assemble my equipment (gloves, fanny pack with treats, brushes, sometimes a halter).  Settling, breathing, feeling the rhythm and smoothness of my gestures.  I don’t have a particular agenda or plan.  Usually we review the things that we know (grooming, hoof lifting and picking practicing our movement cues.  Then, depending on how he feels to me (steady, nervous, curious, disinterested), we move into something new.

I recently heard about a competition called the Extreme Mustang Makeover.  Contestants have 90 days to gentle and train a wild Mustang.  To me that sounds like a lot of pressure on both horse and human.  It also sounds like doing things in human time, not horse time.

For me, the joy of Nelson is in taking my time and in building trust, friendship and understanding in slow, comprehensible steps.  One of the greatest gifts that horses can teach us is learning to be in horse time, which is not goal oriented or clock and schedule driven.  And, as Klaus Hempfling says, letting the horse come to me, not the other way around.

 

Mar29

both sides, same issue

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Our friend Lynn Mordas is the owner of Dashing Star Farm, just about a mile down the road from us.  It is where we get the most delicious eggs in the world, in shades of blue that are almost green, an astonishing range of whites and light browns.  For the past couple weeks, I have been driving by the farm and pulling over to admire the lambs.  I love watching them bask and nurse and explore. When I decided it was time to photograph, I had a humbling lesson about shooting livestock.  I stopped by on the evening that shearing was about to happen, so the Moms and the lambs were separated and all in noisy distress.  No one was standing still for a bucolic shot.  Absolutely none of my chicken shots made the cut. . .

This photograph reminded me of something that I have been noticing lately:  how different an issue can seem depending upon which side of it you are looking at.  When I see something from the perspective of possibility, it has an entirely different look than if I am looking at it as a problem.   If I am worrying, the color and shape of things is very different from when I am appreciating.

I am also noticing a tendency this spring to see financial situations as immutable, unchangeable.  I realize that if I do not see money as a renewable resource, then it simply cannot be.  If I am focused on the outflow and not aligning myself with nourishing inflows, they cannot come! (Thank you Napoleon Hill).

When I realized that this was a fairly hardwired point of view, I was not happy.  Then I remembered my wonderful teacher, Linda Tellington-Jones, who when looking at an intractable problem with a horse, says, “Isn’t that interesting.”  And that interest opens the door to a solution – to engagement and possibility, rather than driving deeper into the problem.  And that certainly seems worth a try.

 

Mar27

all the pretty horses

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This post is about a new performance project that I am developing.  I would love for you to share this information with friends.  This project grew out of my desire to create performance that would benefit horses, and is part of my company’s “horses helping horses” project.  It is close to my heart.  I am especially excited about this project because our partners, Little Brook Farm, are so deeply woven into their upstate New York community and have taught literally thousands of children about horses.

All the Pretty Horses is a community-based, inter-species dance project with “throw away” horses that have been rescued from abuse or slaughter and now live safe and happy at the equine sanctuary Little Brook Farm, in Old Chatham, NY. The performance is a benefit for the sanctuary and will take place September 22, 2012.

Also participating in the performance are the riders and vaulters from Little Brook Farm, area student dancers and the professional dancers from Paula Josa-Jones/Performance Works.

All the Pretty Horses reveals the depth and heart of the human-horse bond and the beauty and possibility of horses that were thrown away or consigned to slaughter. It shows us that when we share time and space with horses, learn to listen to them and communicate through the language of movement, we become more compassionate, more connected to each other and more a part of the shared earth.

What we need:
We are seeking 20 dancers and gymnasts to participate in this world premiere event. You will have a unique and exciting opportunity to work with a professional dance company and the horses and riders from Little Brook Farm. No horse experience is necessary. Participation fee is $100, which includes all classes and rehearsals. Participating dancers will receive a certificate at the end of the project. Saturday rehearsals are twice a month from April – September. For more information or to join the project:
josajones@gmail.com

We also need financial support:  Funds are needed to pay professional dancers’ fees, travel and production expenses. We raised start up funds from Kickstarter and need to raise an additional $5000 to complete the project.  You can make a donation here.  We deeply appreciate your support of All the Pretty Horses!