Category Archives: horses, dogs & more

Dec9

Nelson this week

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Yesterday I went to work with Nelson.  There is The Work, but the other part is that I go to Nelson because being with him is an immediate way to get happy and move into focus.

There had been snow so things were different.  Nelson was spookier than he has been for a long time.  The snow was falling off the trees onto the hood of my car making this random timpani sound which he found alarming (so did I).  For both of us the light was refracting differently, and the footing was sloppy and icy.  He allowed me to take the giant snow balls off his feet, and then we went to work.

I have been developing the work on Nelson’s left – the dark side – asking him to move on cue onto a circle going left so that his dark side is the one facing me.  When he circles to the right, his body is a smooth curve, and he moves comfortably – either close in to me or farther out, depending on how I have asked.  When he goes left, his body is straight as a plank, he doesn’t want to look at me and he is markedly more tense.  It is as if the cannot feel himself on that side.

The BLM freeze brands the captured Mustangs on the left side of their neck.  Given Nelson’s terror and ferocity at that time, I am sure that event was traumatic and violent at least.  Maybe that is why the dark side is so persistently dark.

The lovely thing was that after we practiced his a few times, he got quieter and calmer.  Not exactly soft, but I could see that coming.  That was when I hit a patch of slippery slush and made a shockingly disorganized predator movement.  Arms flung up for balance.  He took off.  After a few moments, he came back and we went on.  That is the very beautiful part of developing a long relationship with a horse.  There is a foundation of trust, a language of ask and answer that let’s us slide seamlessly back into the work and the relationship.

Here are some of the things I have learned from Nelson.  These are lessons that spill into my writing, my choreography, my mothering.

  • the importance of consistency
  • how to go slow
  • how to build the work incrementally
  • how to begin again
  • the meaning of love

The last one is probably the most important.  There is nothing like stopping to take in the sun, the trees, the hills while standing next to a creature that is choosing to be there, to be next to you in that breathing moment.  Today my stallion Capprichio put his nose on my neck and stood like that, just breathing for about two minutes.  Bliss.

postscript:  I am teaching an online class called Breaking into Blossom:  Moving into an Improvisational Life starting on January 23.  If you register before December 23, the price is $75.  On Christmas Eve Day it goes up to $100.

 

 

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Dec8

the work

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Again, for those of you who have not visited the RIDE site. These images are from the production called “Flight.”

Three years ago, I became obsessed with blending aerial dance with horses.  In the first production of RIDE, we had used low-flying swings. I wanted more.

Around the same time, my friend Tamara Weiss, the owner of Midnight Farm on Martha’s Vineyard said, “Well you know Polly flies, don’t you?”  I didn’t. She was talking about the magnificent Paola Styron, dancer and aerialist extraordinaire.

And so, with her help and that of Flying by Foy, we created a workshop performance. We have not done it again but are open to that possibility. (Are there any angels out there?)

The other performers are the beautiful dancers, Ingrid Schatz, DeAnna Pellecchia and Dillon Paul; riders Brandi Rivera and Nicole Muccio; and horses Capprichio and Sanne. The images at the end are of Sarah Hollis and Escorial. The music is by Robert Weinstein.

This is a big part of my Great Work; the thing that wakes me up at night and in the morning, fills my journals and makes my heart sing.

postscript:  This week in The Journal, I am writing another ragged little memoir, this one called The Beast.  You can receive it by subscribing here. (As always, you can unsubscribe at any time.)

 

Dec7

occupy life

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Photo:  Pam White

This morning I read the article in the New Yorker about Ray Kachel and Occupy Wall Street.  I thought about gifted, desperate people like Ray.  The photograph of him is arresting, haunting.  He is looking straight into the camera.   There is both a challenge and a softness in his eyes.  His story is horrific.  His story is common.  I want to be angry.  I don’t want to be angry.  I want to do something immediate and helpful.  I don’t want to do anything.  I am powerless.  I have choices.

One choice I am pretty clear about: I don’t want to be in Zuccotti Park.  I don’t want to visit, I don’t want to feel what it is to camp on tarps, to be hungry and wet, and surrounded by sounds and humans over which I have no control.

Another choice: I want to show up, in my way.  To shine a light.  To do my best today. Even when I am not sure what to do, there can be a grace in that.   Maybe to just sit with my despair, my confusion and my love.

Yesterday I also read Jon Katz’s eloquent post about animal rights.  Another light shining.  More grace.

postscript:  This week in The Journal, I am writing another ragged little memoir.  The working title is The Beast.  You can subscribe to The Journal here. (As always, you can unsubscribe at any time.)

Dec6

horses and humanity

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“If we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.”  (Black Beauty by Anna Sewell)

Pam White posted a beautiful blog yesterday.  It has inspired me to look at the horse slaughter issue through the lens of the words of Chief Seattle.

This is a video of Joseph Campbell reading from Chief Seattle’s letter of 1854.  To me, this is sacred text.  And, it is no mistake that the horse is featured so clearly in the mythologizing of our land.

The ASPCA opposes horse slaughter.  PETA has adopted an odd position that decries slaughter of any kind, but approves the slaughter of horses in the U.S. as a way of keeping horses from being shipped to Canada or Mexico for their grotesque deaths.  I don’t think you can have it both ways.   Watch this video only if you have a strong stomach. 

Slaughter is never, never humane.  Euthanasia is humane.  If Congress is actually concerned about the welfare of our horses, they should make a provision for humane euthanasia by a veterinarian.  But in fact, this is another issue driven by greed and other countries’  appetites for horse meat.  And greed is never compassionate; it is crude and expeditious.

As I said yesterday, in the burgeoning storm about horses and slaughter, there is this:  horses possess an extraordinary  sensitivity.  They are defenseless.  They are companion animals, like dogs and cats.

I am weighing in on this because I spend time every day with horses.  This is not an abstract issue for me.  I write every day about how horses can help us to become better humans:  more aware, more embodied, more conscious.  It is their gift as prey animals who have played and continue to play a major role in our civilization as workers (in war, in the fields, on the streets), entertainers (the racing industry)  and partners in sport, work and life.

The pro-slaughter lobby says that the horse issue has been hijacked by emotional arguments on the part of opponents of slaughter.  And what, I ask, is wrong with emotion, with feeling?  (Do I smell an old sexist argument here?)

Here is my hope:  That millions and millions of people will see the film War Horse, and get, viscerally, something heart-opening about the horse.  I am doing what  Abraham suggests:  pivoting from something I abhor  (horse slaughter and its inevitable cruelty) to point myself toward what I want:  a shift in public consciousness and policy.

More reading:  http://www.manesandtailsorganization.org/vicki_tobin.html