Language is a skin

"Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tips of my words." - Roland Barthes

In whispers

I had this exchange with a professor many years back:

She mentioned: "A student told me today that she is going into equine something-or-other psychotherapy. Horses as people whisperers, as I understood it."

"Yes," I replied. "The 'horse as people whisperers' is a sizeable (global) phenomenon. (I got criticized for that in my thesis-- colonialism of the horse, or something like that.) But," I continued, "there is much that a human can learn about themselves when relating to a horse. There's a lot of personal inner shifts that can go on. This whole movement started back in the 70s with a guy named Tom Dorrance. I got to meet him before he died. He was a simple cowboy with a simple way of relating to people and horses and had a keen sense of basic psychology. If he was working on a project with someone, he'd say "Man, I could really use a hammer for this..." instead of the alternative "Get me the goddam hammer." The jist of this work was to make the desire to do something come from the horse/human ("It has to come from the inside of the horse," he'd say) - to make it their idea instead of forcing or pressuring (or beating/abusing) them to do it. Another crux of his philosophy to working well with horses is 'feel, timing, and balance' -which creates lessons and workloads of personal work for any general human-bean to really "get." [ insert zen lesson here.] [ insert something about meditation and quiet minds here.] [insert something about letting go, or going with the flow - watered down Tao.] [ insert lessons to be learned about feelings --inside and outside (this is my personal favorite part, hence Merleau Ponty.)]...{and you can certainly see how this could be colonized/capitalized upon by trained therapists for troubled youth, prison inmates and cancer survivors.} In terms of the 'pop-culture horse-lit' that's out there, one book in particular, A Revolution in Horsemanship, states at the very end something along the lines of "the horse is here to change us..." - which was quite a salvific claim. ...Interesting things at work in this horse whispering industry."

Heber City’s Cowboy Poetry Gathering Brings “New Possibilities” with the Mountain Valley Extreme Mustang Makeover

This just in from the Eclectic Horseman newsletter:

Donnette Hicks, producer of the equestrian events of the Heber City’s Cowboy Poetry Gathering, has a dream and a vision: for equestrian competitions to be judged in a unique way, where the competitors will receive their highest points for how well they show a willing connection that results in an inspired partnership between horse and human. She firmly believes in the words of Ray Hunt, “The horse tells me where the rider’s at.”

The caliber of judging will be exceptional, between the three men selected to judge this competition. The judges for this first annual event will be Martin Black (TX & ID), Jim Hicks (UT), and Bob Moorhouse (TX). Martin Black is excited to judge this competition because he believes that “True horsemanship is impressive to the true horseman”. Jim Hicks agrees with Martin Black and adds “If this event can transform the relationship between one horse and one rider, then we have accomplished our vision.”

Why the Mountain Valley version of the Extreme Makeover event? In our mountain region we work with two extremes: high-end dressage horses and mustangs. Both worlds really seem hungry for the vision that Ray Hunt and Tom Dorrance brought to the horse world. Ray Hunt said, “I can’t teach this. I can only get you aware of it.” Out of Ray’s wisdom, Donnette feels this is a good forum to bring about this awareness.

For more information visit www.hebercitycowboypoetry.com

Integration of nervous systems

"The onlooker should have the impression that two creatures are fused together, one thinking, the other executing the thoughts." - Alois Podhajsky, The Riding Teacher

Racehorse retirement plans

Check out this article from the NY Times, published Aug 23, 2009, about the fate of horses in the race industry:

Around the Final Turn, and Heading for a Home

Metamorphosis

In a recent interview at the Center of the American West's Wallace Stegner award ceremony, Tom McGuane, Stanford educated cowboy, said of his work with horses:

"...to be really fine-tuned, you turn into the horse, and the horse turns into you. [The collective] You become one mind."