my head is full of horses this week

I listened to Klaus Hempfling's tele-conference on Sunday (available for listening now on Dressage Disgrace) and was wowed by his eagle eye view on the subject of humans and horses and trauma. Subsequently, my mind is buzzing. Much of what he said mirrors my take on the bigger issue of rollkur AND my work as a psychotherapist. It is so startling when one part of my life (psychotherapy and psychology) intersects so perfectly with another part (horses and riding and spirituality). I haven't processed all this enough to write much about it, but I will.

Meanwhile we have a grand old mare who is having a rough few weeks after a mad gallop in the field with the geldings and donkeys. She has had good days and then not so good days and I suspect the weather wildly fluctuating is not helping her any. For now I'm not sure if this is another rough patch we'll walk her through or if this is the first glimpse that we're nearing a difficult decision. I have been here before with her, and I'm trying hard not to succumb to the overwhelm that comes with not knowing exactly what to do. Thus far she lets me know, and we get back to a good place. I'm hoping for that outcome again.

Please send some healing thoughts her way.

outside my sunday morning window

There is a red tree, a red bay, fallen acorns, a big chestnut, tobacco brown leaves on green grass, and a painted pony whose upside-down V is, today, an arrow pointing up to a clear and beautiful sky.

don't forget - Hempfling on Sunday

For more info, go to:

http://www.dressagedisgrace.com/live-teleseminar-klaus-ferdinand-hempfling

sojourn from the storm

Yesterday morning I opened the curtains to our front windows to find a small flock of birds taking refuge from the rain.

They were on the chairs, on the porch rail, and even lined up on the threshold of our front door.

The cats were lined up begging to be let out there, as it was the day of the big rain from Hurricane Ida and the front porch is a way to get outside without getting wet. I made them wait, though, because the birds were obviously trying to find a place to sit and dry out.

Today most of the rain has gone and now we're weathering gray skies and big wind.

As I did my daily check-in on Facebook, to see what news there might be in the rollkur debate, I found a reference to a book called Empowered Horses by Imke Spilker. Further research yielded THIS, a blog post that looks at Spilker's philosophy and work with horses.

I've ordered it, my own little sojourn from rollkur and the insanity in the dressage world.

Gerd Heuschmann and Joni Bentley - EXCELLENT article

READ IT HERE.


And please make sure you scroll all the way down to the photos of Anky and Patrik Kittel riding in Windsor 2009.

I don't think anything I could ever write on this blog can express the horrors of rollkur better than those photographs.

And the fact that judges give them ribbons speaks to the insanity in the sport as a whole.