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Horse Camp
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rachelmanija and sartorias and I got on the road and traveled to Camp Lipizzan.
This is our third collective trip to horse camp (and my fourth trip total; I came on my own in May when I really needed to get away), and it's been delightful every time. It's a peaceful and productive time during which we can sleep, write, eat well, and play with (as our host puts it) "hot and cold running Lipizzans." On an average day at horse camp, I roll out of bed between eight and ten AM, get some breakfast, write, get some lunch, write, go out intermittently and say hello to the horses, write, have dinner, and then have great conversation after dinner.dancinghorse is a wonderful host, providing delicious food, a comfortable bed, and wonderful surroundings, and letting us work in peaceful solitude—and then providing fascinating evening conversation about books, writing horses, you name it. On this trip I drafted one short story (in which I solved my usual problem with plotting by dropping a snowstorm on a protagonist) and half of another, planned a third, and created a strategy for revising the pigeon book.
And, of course, the horses.
In addition to the long, peaceful bouts of writing, we got plenty of time with the horses. On Tuesday, after I drafted most of the gryphon-and-snowstorm story, I got a chance to ride Pandora (one of the lovey white mares) in the arena. I've had several lessons on Pandora, but there's something very different about just getting on Pandora and noodling around together, enjoying the evening.
Then on Wednesday, we had yoga with horses (or possibly horses with yoga)! What happened was that we went out to do yoga among the horses, as the name would suggest. I am stiff and not very bendy at the best of times, and after a lot of car travel is far from "the best of times," but the movements were all things I could more or less do. But the best part was the way that the horses interacted with us while we were doing yoga.
And now, with pony illustrations! Note that the pics are all viatcastleb, aka ComposerLady on Flickr; they're on my picasa account for ease of posting, not because they're mine. All credit for the lovely pics goes to her!
First, a note: we were able to do yoga with horses among the herd safely for a number of reasons: first, it's a stable, well-socialized herd on a breeding farm with established family-related bonds, and therefore has fairly predictable interactions; second, all the horses have been trained to respect the fact that humans are small and squishy and that squishing small humans is a Bad Thing; third, people familiar with the herd and its behavior were in with us for "spotting" purposes; and fourth, no matter how relaxed we looked, we were all alert to shiftings in the half-ton animals around us.
The way horse yoga worked was that we started by doing "standard" yoga, but with the horses moving around us. And boy did they! Apparently the calm, quiet, synchronized movements appealed to them, because almost as soon as we began they headed over to see what we were up to.
First, as we were doing mountain pose and practicing deep breathing, Khepera decided that he needed to say hello. By tickling my neck:
Then he decided to eat Rachel's hair and/or hat:
He got some attention from Judy:
And we continued with the yoga.
We went on to something like a modified downward facing dog with "elephant arms." You can see that Khepera decided to extend his neck along with us:
And Tia was very interested in what Sherwood was up to:
Horse communication! Camilla appreciated being the center of attention for a bit:
More horse yoga!:
Tia says hello (or possibly Tia says "t-shirts might be tasty!"):
And this is me and Pandora, the horse I ride when I'm at camp:
There are few better ways to be photographed than entirely framed by horses:
After we were done with the yoga, the horses lost interest and wandered off... although some of the attention hogs (hi, Khepera!) stuck around for scritches and generalized worship!
The rest of Wednesday was writing and relaxing and talking and eating, and it was totally wonderful. Then on Thursday there was a lesson, and Friday a thunderstorm and dancing (muddy) horses—pictures later!
rachelmanija and sartorias and I got on the road and traveled to Camp Lipizzan.This is our third collective trip to horse camp (and my fourth trip total; I came on my own in May when I really needed to get away), and it's been delightful every time. It's a peaceful and productive time during which we can sleep, write, eat well, and play with (as our host puts it) "hot and cold running Lipizzans." On an average day at horse camp, I roll out of bed between eight and ten AM, get some breakfast, write, get some lunch, write, go out intermittently and say hello to the horses, write, have dinner, and then have great conversation after dinner.
dancinghorse is a wonderful host, providing delicious food, a comfortable bed, and wonderful surroundings, and letting us work in peaceful solitude—and then providing fascinating evening conversation about books, writing horses, you name it. On this trip I drafted one short story (in which I solved my usual problem with plotting by dropping a snowstorm on a protagonist) and half of another, planned a third, and created a strategy for revising the pigeon book.And, of course, the horses.
In addition to the long, peaceful bouts of writing, we got plenty of time with the horses. On Tuesday, after I drafted most of the gryphon-and-snowstorm story, I got a chance to ride Pandora (one of the lovey white mares) in the arena. I've had several lessons on Pandora, but there's something very different about just getting on Pandora and noodling around together, enjoying the evening.
 |
| From Horse Camp, October 2010 |
Then on Wednesday, we had yoga with horses (or possibly horses with yoga)! What happened was that we went out to do yoga among the horses, as the name would suggest. I am stiff and not very bendy at the best of times, and after a lot of car travel is far from "the best of times," but the movements were all things I could more or less do. But the best part was the way that the horses interacted with us while we were doing yoga.
And now, with pony illustrations! Note that the pics are all via
tcastleb, aka ComposerLady on Flickr; they're on my picasa account for ease of posting, not because they're mine. All credit for the lovely pics goes to her!First, a note: we were able to do yoga with horses among the herd safely for a number of reasons: first, it's a stable, well-socialized herd on a breeding farm with established family-related bonds, and therefore has fairly predictable interactions; second, all the horses have been trained to respect the fact that humans are small and squishy and that squishing small humans is a Bad Thing; third, people familiar with the herd and its behavior were in with us for "spotting" purposes; and fourth, no matter how relaxed we looked, we were all alert to shiftings in the half-ton animals around us.
The way horse yoga worked was that we started by doing "standard" yoga, but with the horses moving around us. And boy did they! Apparently the calm, quiet, synchronized movements appealed to them, because almost as soon as we began they headed over to see what we were up to.
First, as we were doing mountain pose and practicing deep breathing, Khepera decided that he needed to say hello. By tickling my neck:
 |
| From Horse Camp, October 2010 - Traci's Pics |
Then he decided to eat Rachel's hair and/or hat:
 |
| From Horse Camp, October 2010 - Traci's Pics |
He got some attention from Judy:
 |
| From Horse Camp, October 2010 - Traci's Pics |
And we continued with the yoga.
We went on to something like a modified downward facing dog with "elephant arms." You can see that Khepera decided to extend his neck along with us:
 |
| From Horse Camp, October 2010 - Traci's Pics |
And Tia was very interested in what Sherwood was up to:
 |
| From Horse Camp, October 2010 - Traci's Pics |
Horse communication! Camilla appreciated being the center of attention for a bit:
 |
| From Horse Camp, October 2010 - Traci's Pics |
More horse yoga!:
 |
| From Horse Camp, October 2010 - Traci's Pics |
Tia says hello (or possibly Tia says "t-shirts might be tasty!"):
 |
| From Horse Camp, October 2010 - Traci's Pics |
And this is me and Pandora, the horse I ride when I'm at camp:
 |
| From Horse Camp, October 2010 - Traci's Pics |
There are few better ways to be photographed than entirely framed by horses:
 |
| From Horse Camp, October 2010 - Traci's Pics |
After we were done with the yoga, the horses lost interest and wandered off... although some of the attention hogs (hi, Khepera!) stuck around for scritches and generalized worship!
The rest of Wednesday was writing and relaxing and talking and eating, and it was totally wonderful. Then on Thursday there was a lesson, and Friday a thunderstorm and dancing (muddy) horses—pictures later!
no subject
I also appreciate the point you make about why this herd is a good one to do yoga-with-horses with, where another herd might not be. Although it would probably be very interesting for an individual to try some of these postures in proximity with their own horse. Hmm!
no subject