Horsing Around
Apr. 18th, 2010 03:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coraaIt took me a long time to upload these, but they make me very happy. Many, many thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tcastleb for taking these pictures, and for allowing me to share them.
First, here's me taking a picture of Pandora, who I've ridden twice now and who I love tremendously:
Then! When we did the 'communicating with horses' seminar, we worked with Khepera, a gelding who's very interactive with humans. So the rest of the pictures are me and Khepera.
Here we are, walking along. Note that I'm not touching Khepera or his tack at all; he's following along because we're in sync:
Here's another picture of the same. You can see that I'm holding a crop, but I actually never touched him with it at all; it was just used to reinforce my 'personal space' so that he wouldn't try to bully me with his bigger size. (He was very respectful once I made it clear that I was going to be in charge.) You can see that we're in step: I've just set down on my left foot, and he's just a hairsbreadth behind me, with his own left foot almost ready to set down too.
Here we are again, walking very calmly. When this was happening, I felt very in tune with Khepera, as though were were communicating on an extraverbal level. (Although not totally extraverbal. I did a lot of talking out loud with him: "Okay, Khepera, I'm turning right; how about you go with me?" It seemed to work quite well, partly because horses are smarter than people give them credit for, and partly because the direction-of-intention of speaking helps a lot with nonverbal communication.)
In the next two photos, our trainer told me to send Khepera away from me. I was able to do so without ever touching him with the crop, by modeling the pace I wanted him to set and by expanding my personal space bubble. You can see how lovely he was in the trot:
And then Khepera and I reconnected:
Got back into the same vibe:
And did some more animal-ing about together:
And when we ended, I felt really quite close to him:
And that's what it's like to talk to a horse and really communicate with it, I guess. Addictive. Oh, hell, yes, addictive.
tcastleb for taking these pictures, and for allowing me to share them.First, here's me taking a picture of Pandora, who I've ridden twice now and who I love tremendously:
 |
| From Horse Camp, March 2010 |
Then! When we did the 'communicating with horses' seminar, we worked with Khepera, a gelding who's very interactive with humans. So the rest of the pictures are me and Khepera.
Here we are, walking along. Note that I'm not touching Khepera or his tack at all; he's following along because we're in sync:
 |
| From Horse Camp, March 2010 |
Here's another picture of the same. You can see that I'm holding a crop, but I actually never touched him with it at all; it was just used to reinforce my 'personal space' so that he wouldn't try to bully me with his bigger size. (He was very respectful once I made it clear that I was going to be in charge.) You can see that we're in step: I've just set down on my left foot, and he's just a hairsbreadth behind me, with his own left foot almost ready to set down too.
 |
| From Horse Camp, March 2010 |
Here we are again, walking very calmly. When this was happening, I felt very in tune with Khepera, as though were were communicating on an extraverbal level. (Although not totally extraverbal. I did a lot of talking out loud with him: "Okay, Khepera, I'm turning right; how about you go with me?" It seemed to work quite well, partly because horses are smarter than people give them credit for, and partly because the direction-of-intention of speaking helps a lot with nonverbal communication.)
 |
| From Horse Camp, March 2010 |
In the next two photos, our trainer told me to send Khepera away from me. I was able to do so without ever touching him with the crop, by modeling the pace I wanted him to set and by expanding my personal space bubble. You can see how lovely he was in the trot:
 |
| From Horse Camp, March 2010 |
 |
| From Horse Camp, March 2010 |
And then Khepera and I reconnected:
 |
| From Horse Camp, March 2010 |
Got back into the same vibe:
 |
| From Horse Camp, March 2010 |
And did some more animal-ing about together:
 |
| From Horse Camp, March 2010 |
And when we ended, I felt really quite close to him:
 |
| From Horse Camp, March 2010 |
And that's what it's like to talk to a horse and really communicate with it, I guess. Addictive. Oh, hell, yes, addictive.
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 11:20 pm (UTC)(If it wasn't for this glass in the way, we would totally nom them)
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Date: 2010-04-19 01:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 11:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 01:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 03:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 04:16 am (UTC)Yay for buff Khepera! I love that he's the (slightly less evil) evil gelding. I always imagine him with the Bond villain voice. "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to diiiiiiie." ;)
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Date: 2010-04-19 06:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 08:53 am (UTC)I do miss horses. You look as if you're having a great time there.
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Date: 2010-04-19 11:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 07:13 pm (UTC)