enlightened horsemanship through touch

No, I am not referring to our beloved Jane of The Literary Horse. This is an exhibit touring public and school libraries pairing photos of today’s horses and riders with quotations from the world’s great books.

Award-winning artist, educator, and photographer Vanessa Wright is passionate about the power, meaning, and beauty of the human-horse connection and the inner awareness and growth that working with (and loving) horses can bring out in us. She says,

The word photography comes from Greek words meaning ‘writing with light.’ So I see myself not as a photographer, but as a storyteller, writing with light about the light that I see in others. I strive to capture and celebrate … the capacity for unnoticed or uncelebrated but absolutely real greatness in every person and every horse.

The exhibit features real horses, real people, real life, and real legend. And it is stunning.

From Achilles receiving his immortal chargers to Don Quixote’s farewell to Rocinante, literature is full of memorable stories and poetry about heroic horses and horse-people. This exhibit, touring public and school libraries, brings those legends to life by pairing up to 100 photos of today’s novice through Olympic horses and horse-people with quotations from the world’s great books.

The real elegance of this project lies in Wright’s ability to draw parallels between the epic past and the mundane present, showing that they are not so far apart.

Though legends may sometimes seem like nothing more than imaginary tales from long ago, they are happening again here. And though their horses may seem impossibly good and brave and splendid, they are living again now. Look closely, and you will see the great heart in both the horse show champion and the shaggy pony in your neighborhood. Look more closely still, and you will see the timeless hero in your neighbor, in your family member, in your friend, and, ultimately, in yourself.

Wright’s present is represented by folks who are anything but mundane: Clicker Training expert Alexandra Kurland and a unicorn; Kara Barnes and the Chestnut Hill Arabians; Darren Chiacchia and Windfall as Helios and his golden horse; (five-time sidesaddle champion) Rhonda Watts Hettinger and Christian Hettinger (creator of the internations fox-hunting emblem) portraying the love story from Rob Roy; and the University of New Hampshire Therapeutic Riding Program.

Here are just a few of the legends that appear in the program:

Silver Blaze, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Song of Finis, Walter de la Mare
The Spectral Horseman, To the Moon (poems), Percy Bysshe Shelley
Strife and Peace, Fredrika Bremer
The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains, Owen Wister
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
The Mabinogion, trans. Lady Charlotte Schreiber
Phaedra, Jean Baptiste Racine

The schedule of exhibitions has not been updated since February, which is a shame. I also doubt that it will arrive in Hawaii, where inspiration to read in any form is badly needed. Check it out, though. It may come to a library near you, in which case, make a beeline. And then let me know what you thought.

… work deeply on the mind and on the body of the horse. Open your mind. Open your senses.

Magali Delgado and Frédéric Pignon, equestrian co-directors of Cavalia recently spoke by phone from their farm in France with Elizabeth McCall to discuss their new book, Gallop to Freedom. This book is kind of a Cavalia retrospective from their points of view.

I think they’re really interesting people not only because of their obvious skill with horses but also because both Magali and Frédéric always appear so calm and centered. It’s apparently not just their on-stage personas, either. Finding time and emotional energy to write a book while training equine performers and touring extensively might seem a daunting task to most, but, in this interview, they reveal themselves to be grounded in the tranquil, present energy of the horses they surround themselves with.

Magali Delgado image with gratitude from www.pignon-delgado.com/

Frederic Pignon image with gratitude from www.pignon-delgado.com/

Maybe this is why they dedicated their book to the world-famous Lusitano stallions Dao and Templado. When describing what Templado contributed to his philosophy, Frédéric said,

When I started to work with Templado I understood that he was very special. He was one of those horses who makes you understand that every horse is very unique. There is no rule. There are no mathematical ways to understand a horse. Templado was a unique personality. He was not like the hundreds of horses I worked with before and he made me understand that when we work with a horse, we have to adapt ourselves and even adapt everything we’ve learned [before] to this new unique personality. He taught us a lot, but the way he opened my mind … about working with a new horse using all we know and trying to learn more. When you work with a horse, I think it’s important to realize that he could probably teach you much more than you already know.

Surprising how humble this accomplished horseman and trainer is in comparison to many horsemen of lesser talent. I find his willingness to allow Templado to broaden his “horsey world view” very appealing. So few of us actually believe a horse can teach us anything.

Elizabeth McCall asked them how they manage to stay so peaceful within the whirlwind of their lives in the spotlight. Don’t they ever get nervous about performing? Magali answers,

For me it’s not nerves. I’m really excited. When I have a new horse, I’m always really excited by the results of my horse in the show and to see the reactions of the people. For me it’s like a positive energy, but I know it’s not the same way for everybody. I’m lucky. I’ve been in shows since I was very young and I know myself very well. I need that little point of excitement inside when my heart is going boom, boom! But I’m not afraid and I’m not tense. I’m just very focused, concentrating, and full of energy and that has helped me a lot for the competition and for the show.

Frédéric, who often orchestrates the performances of up to five stallions at a time, sums up the essence of mindful horsemanship, saying,

You have to first work on your own stress. It’s why I do yoga. We have to first control ourselves and our emotions. If you can control yourself, then you can help the horses.

You can get a full-length copy of the interview, “Magali Delgado and Frédéric Pignon talk about their new book, Gallop to Freedom“. Contact Elizabeth McCall

© 2009 enlightened horsemanship through touch and Kim Cox Carneal

Amazon Art and Design

On to the Next by Eleanor Hartwell

This is my all-time favorite work of art presented here at  Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch. Unfortunately for me, it has been sold. I am very jealous of the lucky owner!

Handmade fly whisks by Eleanor Hartwell

EDITED TO ADD: I have tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to make these images link directly to Eleanor’s site with no success. Sorry Eleanor!

Read more…

I very nearly got to go for an informal visit with my boss this month. Very nearly. Now that would have been the trip of a lifetime.

© 2009 enlightened horsemanship through touch and Kim Cox Carneal

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When my daughter was away at college, I was able to dispense with television entirely because, well, I hate it. It serves no purpose in my life other than to introduce noisy and offensively mindless material into my home. I have never been able to understand why people keep the thing on endlessly and even eat in stupefied silence in front of it. What happens to family life? To conversation? Or to the life of the mind? How can you develop your mind (or stillness of the mind) if you are so busy filling it with garbage?

Ok, enough ranting disguised as rhetorical questions.

I’m a huge fan of Netflix. I get to choose Netflix among a large variety of independent film and documentary, and on the rare occasion when a guest insists on a horror flick or my daughter is home and insists on SciFi, she can have that, too. On a limited basis. Hooray for a limited basis.

I can never find equestrian instructional DVDs on Netflix, and now I don’t have to keep trying.

Now, there’s HorseFlix, an online/mail video rental service for equine/equestrian videos.

Here are some of the categories offered:

Bits
Clicker Training
Documentary
Dressage
Driving
Eventing
Feature Films
Foal Care
For The Rider
Gaited Horse
General Interest
Grooming
Health – Horse
Hoof Care
Horsekeeping
Hunter
Jumper
Natural Horsemanship
Pony Club
Saddles and Fit
Travel
Trick Training
Western
Wild Horses

There’s a lot of good stuff in there, and there’s also some questionable stuff, but not much of it. I would very much like to copyedit the site, but that’s a bad habit of mine, so ignore that statement. I am thrilled to see that there are five Mark Rashid videos. *doing a little happy dance* and I can now watch Chris Irwin, which will make Shoshin happy.

Take a look, see what you think. Let me know what videos YOU most would like to see.

“Befitting the horses commonly seen on Mackinac Island, this show seeks to deliver a broad awareness and appreciation of contemporary draft and carriage horses in equine art as a specific and distinctively worthy segment of fine art in America.”

See also the art of Andrea Harman Steiner and James Crow.

I’m such a sucker for Percherons.
 

© 2009 enlightened horsemanship through touch and Kim Cox Carneal

If you like what you have been reading, please subscribe to the RSS Feed, and visit Bloggers Choice Awards to vote for Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch.

Horseworld is the U.K.’s leading equine rescue charity, rescuing, rehabilitating and adopting out horses, ponies, and donkeys.

Visitors to the Horseworld Rescue Center in Bristol, England got an eye- (and nose-) full of a new sculpture in the gardens yesterday. Sculptor Sophie Howard is completing a life-size model of a horse out of, you guessed it, manure. The statue is part of a green theme exhibition planned for the center in the second half of July.

photo courtesy www.horseandhound.co.uk

Howard likes making unpredictable sculptures and feels that re-using the manure humorously honors the green and recycling themes of the exhibition. To make the all-natural sculpture, Howard visits the manure pile daily for fresh material to mix with clay and lime for application to a willow frame, which will show through the surface of the manure, representing muscles and flesh of the horse.

I like the idea of the horses at HorseWorld giving something back to the people who will visit the exhibition!

Other sculptures in the exhibition will include a horse made of thousands of CDs created by Bristol sculptor Dean Williams and a horse’s head carved by chainsaw impresario AD Tree Pirate.

For more information click on Horseworld and Horse And Hound Magazine.

The horses and jockeys seem to burst from the ether

© 2009 enlightened horsemanship through touch and Kim Cox Carneal

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Pam White

I was lucky enough to meet Pam White at a Tellington TTouch training in Hawaii in 2007. Her work is inspiring in that it captures the spirit of horses in an elemental way.

Enjoy!

© 2009 enlightened horsemanship through touch

If you like what you have been reading, please subscribe to the RSS Feed, and visit Bloggers Choice Awards to vote for Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch.