Tag Archives: horse

Dec4

Capprichio!

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I’d like you to meet my ride and my friend.  This is Capprichio, the black Andalusian stallion that is the great (equine) love of my life and my favorite dance partner.

He is ridden here not by me but by his former trainer, the brilliant Sabine Schut-Kery.  If you watch the video on her site, he is the one wearing the yellow polos.

We don’t live in Florida.  This is just where he and I got to know each other a bit.  That was six years ago.  He is nearly 20 now.  Sexy as ever.

Our riding these days is shaped by how he is feeling. That means that I have to pay attention, to wake up to the being that is carrying me, and to work within his limitations.  That is another piece of the ongoing dance.

In the burgeoning storm about horses and slaughter, there is this:  horses possess a sensitivity and delicacy that is beyond our comprehension.  They are defenseless.  They are companion animals, like dogs and cats.  They are our work and play partners.  Slaughter is never, never humane.

I am feeling despair and a deep sadness about this issue.  I want us to do better, as humans;  to be more feeling, more loving in our choices.

 

 

 

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Nov28

making peace with the predator

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My friend Michele told me a story about a lesson she took with the brilliant trainer Sarah Hollis.  Sarah was teaching her about working with horses on the ground (not riding).  Michele works at an equine rescue, and many of the horses that she handles have Issues & History.

Sarah noticed that Michele tended to slink toward the horse as she approached.  She was being a predator.  She had gotten into a habit of trying to be unobtrusive, but instead had adopted a variation on a wolf posture.

Today when I was working with Nelson, I ramped up the work a little and asked him a different question.  I removed the halter and said (in movement), “Can you move around me in a slow circle with no lead rope or halter?”  What I didn’t want was for him to spook or run. I wanted a thinking, feeling horse.  A horse that was calm enough to ask me (in movement) “Is this what you mean?” To start and stop with a subtle voice or hand signal.  Be able to repeat the movement, calmly.

That required me to ask with a “go” signal, not a “GO!” signal.  To be non-threatening in my arms, legs, spine, head, mind.  To be as thinking and feeling as I want him to be.

Nelson was perfect.  Nervous at first on the dark side, but then he totally got it.

One of my daughters is a little like Nelson.  She can smell a wolf-Mommy a mile away.  To connect with her, I have to stay open and show my hand.  No slinking or sneaking.

When and how do you feel your predator self?

Oct16

a different kind of horse

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A new feature of this blog is that each week I am going to point you toward something delicious.  This week it is the strandbeest of Dutch artist Theo Jansen.  Many of you probably know about him, but when I saw this I thought, “This is a different kind of horse!”  A windhorse.  And of course I wanted to dance with it.

The beest has a sophisticated anatomy with muscles and even a stomach, with names like Animaris Percipiere!  There is even a rhinoceros beest.

What I love about horse dancing is that it is unpredictable.  I imagine that the strandbeest on a good windy day would give us a lot of improvisation opportunities.  And that a group of about 20 dancers would create a pretty interesting beest themselves!

Get the picture?


Oct7

living in the material world

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I watched the second half of Martin Scorcese’s HBO documentary on George Harrison last night.  Inscrutable, whimsical, beautiful.  The dark horse, the spiritual man.

My take away is that he lived the improvisation life – he let himself be moved, changed, followed the call, dove deep, came up different.  The through line was looking for the deepest place that his music could take him.

I loved the image of him pulling Ravi Shankar along a path through the brush to the edge of the thrashing Pacific, and both of them gazing down into that wildness.

Have you found the deepest place that your _________(fill in the blank)__________ can take you?  Are you on the path?