Saturday, April 17, 2010

Imke Spilker - Wild Horses

"The sight of them pulls us under their spell."--Imke Spilker


Having devoted the prior two journal entries to beauty's dark side and Altamiro's glorious wild horse expressionism, another article written by Imke Spilker has been presented to me at a perfect time for its first publication in English here in the Journal of Ravenseyrie.



This article was initially published in 1995 in a German environmental magazine called Umwelt Direkt, appearing in the segment Nature and Man. The title of the article is, Wild Horses and, like me, I think you will be amazed at how far ahead of her time Imke Spilker was, to be writing fifteen years ago about things we are just now coming to terms with.

The translation of Wild Horses is by Kristina McCormack. All the photos accompanying the text were taken by me, here at Ravenseyrie, with the exception of the black and white image of Imke Spilker and Reno which was captured by Hans-Peter Gerstner.

Many thanks to Imke Spilker and Kris McCormack for trusting the Journal of Ravenseyrie with the publication of another thought-provoking article.



Wild Horses
by
Imke Spilker

Earth has been subjected by mankind -- this idea characterizes now as ever our behavior toward the environment. But subjugation is not the only answer we can give to the living world around us.

Nature in Germany is tame. No bear lurks deep in the woods, every tree has its owner, and the wind-and-waterproof Goretex jacket resists every bit of bad weather. We have our Nature firmly in hand. We love her, enclose her, cultivate her. We help the turtles cross the street, live in a nature conscious way, and feel like her big brother.


****
They fly off into the distance on thundering hooves, confidently tossing their flowing manes, eyes flashing they rear and gambol, full of unbounded power and joy in living: high-spirited, playful, free horses. The sight of them pulls us under their spell. Horses, it is said, are noble, proud, symbols of freedom and power.

Human beings go into the mountains and desert, in ice and snow, into oceans and virgin forest seeking primordial wildness -- always remaining outside it, only observers. Because wildness is fright and yearning all in one. The magnificent, colossal unboundedness provokes horror when we feel completely at its mercy. Powerless, abandoned to a Nature that we no longer understand, that we no longer trust, panic seizes us and we feel alienated, strangers in a strange land.

Horses are tame harmless pets. Work animals sacrificing themselves in the service of mankind. Livestock. We love horses. They are familiar to us. Horses are strong and fast, far surpassing humans in their powers. Domestication has done little to change that. When they are left to themselves, they shift effortlessly back to a wild horse existence. Horses do not need us.
As long as the river stays in its bed, the garden is free of weeds, and our apartment is free of vermin, we feel at home in nature. Subjugated, she allows us harmony. We feel in unison with tamed nature. But as soon as Nature “leaves the reservation”, comes too close and becomes unpredictable, the uncontrolled-ness of it all disturbs us at the deepest level: we decimate, cultivate, train.... It is still fascinating for man to control, “break”, and bridle the horse -- that symbol of wildness. Dominated Nature, that carries him.

But horses are not wild! They are afraid of us and our incomprehensible world, they sense our conflicting emotions, they would like to trust us, and above all they do not make an attempt on our lives with their superior strength. Horses are not only NOT aggressive, they are actually addicted to harmony -- a characteristic that has made them extraordinarily useful in the history of human beings. Their working days are over. Today we have stronger, faster, more easily maintained machines. But, the fascination with horses is intact.
The fact that they are no longer needed as beasts of burden offers us a new opportunity, but instead of seizing it and learning a new art of partnership from horses, we instead still use them --- as leisure-time appliances. Horses are drilled, controlled, enslaved like (almost) no other animal. Every step is proscribed for them. The arsenal of methods for completely controlling and dominating an animal that once roamed free on the steppes is continually perfected. All too often this “creature of the wind” loses his health and his joy of living because of this.

It could be different. We could become familiar, intimate, with the horse as with a friend. We could give up control and bridling and entrust ourselves to a togetherness that bridges the separation between animal and man.

Horses can teach us harmony, unity between inner and outer. They can take away from us the fear that underlies our preference for separation and control. If we learn to open ourselves to them and perceive their subtle language, we will also come closer to our own true nature. For life -- and this applies to us, too -- is always somehow unpredictable. Thank goodness!


Photo: H-P Gerstner
Communication instead of control -- that changes even the horses. The conscious, proud art of movement engenders a new and healthy perception of self. Dance and play, horse and human -- elevated, exhilarated, joyful and free.




“And Allah took a handful of south wind, breathed into it and created the horse ... ‘I have given you the power to fly without wings and triumph without sword..’” --Bedouin tradition

15 comments:

Kris McCormack said...

What lovely photos, Lynne! Thank you for "lending" them to Imke's article...., and for publishing the article here.

Annemiek said...

Lynne,

Thank you so much for putting this article on the blog (and thank you for your wonderful translation Kris). The photo’s seem to be made especially for this article, even though it was written 15 years ago, they fit perfectly.

Miek

Hilary Lohrman said...

Wonderful article, very timely. Your photographs are perfect illustrations! The struggle between the old ways of domination and the new ways of cohabitation and respect continues, something I wrote about in my own blog this morning. Thank you for your continued inspiration!

eva said...

Lynne, this is indeed a very timely article. Imagine a world where we humans, instead of being obsessed with control, would be "addicted to harmony" as the overriding principle that dictates our perception, value system, and choices. In this sense the horses are our mirror, and they can teach us a different form of life. I have often thought, what would the world be like if people had the intestinal organs of a horse and would live on grass and hay, and spend the better part of their day grazing (while still being human).

Your illustrations are lovely and very fitting. I did not know Ravenseyrie had a live creek. Or is it runoff from the snow? How lovely it must feel after eating snow for months to savor a good drink of water.

JEN-SKA said...

Thank you Lynne, Kris and Imke!

This is really a great article once again - though it sometimes saddens to see how slow this shift is. (I mean it's written 1995 for heaven's sake!)

But it is spreading, it is spreading... As Lynne wrote a month ago, believe in goodness prevailing <3 Thank you for that, it is almost like a mantra for me these days!

June said...

Stormy May wrote recently about feeling "Aslan on the move." You all seem to feel it too. It's in the air. In the past, this kind of thing has taken the form of Y2K-esque the-world-is-going-to-end stuff. Not now. While there is also a bunch of "Left Behind" scare-mongering, there is more of the other, I believe - that's why I recently posted a link to "Moshiach 101" - some orthodox Jews believe the Messiah's arrival is imminent, heralding an era of supernatural peace. There is a strong Catholic swell of thought that an era of peace is on its way too. An era involving a springing up of peace in individual hearts, and in the whole created world.

Máire said...

Thank you for bringing us this article. Your photographs are wonderful too. I just love your creek.

That last paragraph in particular spoke to me: "horses can teach us harmony, unity between inner and outer. They can take away from us the fear that underlies our preference for separation and control. If we learn to open ourselves to them and perceive their subtle language, we will also come closer to our own true nature. For life -- and this applies to us, too -- is always somehow unpredictable. Thank goodness!"

Máire

June said...

Yes, Maire's right - I'm finding more and more that letting the horses "get away" with stuff doesn't lead to chaos at all. It only leads to chaos in a situation where control is the desired goal and "getting away with" is a failure of that control. Certainly in that scenario, it can lead to trouble. But when the expectation is that the horse is fundamentally a cooperative, intelligent and kindly being, "letting them get away" with stuff is just plain courtesy.

Lynne Gerard said...

Well it was truly my pleasure to not only publish Imke's article here, but to rummage through my photo library for Ravenseyrie images to accompany the text and I'm glad that you all enjoyed this journal entry.

Eva wrote:
"I did not know Ravenseyrie had a live creek. Or is it runoff from the snow? How lovely it must feel after eating snow for months to savor a good drink of water."

Maire also mentioned the creek, so I'd better relay a bit about this creek.

This creek is seasonal, and depending on how much snow we've had over the winter and how much rain for spring and summer determines whether or not it completely dried up or not.

This creek meanders to a spectacular waterfall that send the water down the bluff, to a lower creek which winds itself down to the lake shore. The falls are very special, and I haven't shared images of them because the creek and the falls are on our neighbor's property (remember we own 240 acres and the remaining 120 belong to the physician couple from the village)...to show these falls would be a little like showing the world a magical private place that isn't mine to share.

The horses do eat snow in the winter, but they also go to this creek and paw through the snow/ice to get a drink through it.

I put photos of the creek in winter in a journal entry titled, When the Mundane Becomes Extraordinary in March of 2009. There are also interesting photos and a video clip showing the horses drinking run-off water through the ice over on our sector of the property in a journal entry titled, The Uncomely In-Between which was also published in March of 2009.

Thank you all for reading and for leaving your comments.

Máire said...

Lynne I just had to visit you March 2009 posts and now really need to treat myself to a trawl through your blog.

I also noticed you have me down in a list with some very big names. Thank you! I feel a bit over-awed at that.

Máire

June said...

How lovely to hear the sound of running water in your Uncomely-in-Between entry!

JEN-SKA said...

I came here to copy your blogs address to my blog entry, and then I see my name in the list above. Thank you for "rating" me that high! I am trying to keep all this warmth in my heart and not let my ego have any of it :)

Oh, yes, and here's the blog entry, would love to hear your thoughts if you have the time.

http://jen-ska.blogspot.com/2010/04/beginners-quide.html

Lynne Gerard said...

Jen-ska wrote:
"I see my name in the list above. Thank you for "rating" me that high!"

Rather than a "blog roll", I decided to create a side-bar section to the Journal of Ravenseyrie which I've titled, "Evolving Horse/Human Relationships". Here I am putting links to those individuals who are writing about their experiences of being with horses in non-traditional ways and how they are relating to horses in a sense of friendship and equality and shared leadership.

This list is not a way of "rating"! To find your blog listed in the same segment as a link to Hempfling's or Spilker's website means only that you have demonstrated by the things you've documented in your blogs that you are exploring similar paths. You may not be as far along on the path, but you've begun the mental shift that facilitates heightened reflection and a change in how you behave around horses.

I find this mental shift even at the beginning has the capacity to be inspirational to others, especially as you move through the internal struggle of letting go of old patterns of thinking as you flow into new ones.

And I wanted to demonstrate by the variety of the links that this shift in perception is occurring on a world wide basis. Not a one of us is alone, though it may sometimes feel that way when the withering stare of a conventional trainer aims to reduce our efforts to ineffectual "warm and fuzzy" nonsense. Let them think what they will, you will know that you are in good company, and anyhow, what matters most is what your horses thinks of the "new you".

Lynne Gerard said...

June wrote:
"How lovely to hear the sound of running water in your Uncomely-in-Between entry!"

I like that little clip for its special music, too, June. It's a feast for the senses after the long, hard freeze of winter to have the sights and sounds of spring melt occurring.

Thank you for taking the time June and Maire to visit those older journal entries.

Jen-ska, I'll check out the link to your latest offering soon. Thank you for passing it along.

JEN-SKA said...

"This list is not a way of "rating"! To find your blog listed in the same segment as a link to Hempfling's or Spilker's website means only that you have demonstrated by the things you've documented in your blogs that you are exploring similar paths. You may not be as far along on the path, but you've begun the mental shift that facilitates heightened reflection and a change in how you behave around horses."

Well I guess I could then put it this way; I am very glad I have been able to demonstrate that I am on this shift :)

That too is one interesting thing to assess, this shift can be happening in so many different combinations of mental versus physical forms of expression. Well that's a messed up sentence. What I mean is that there can be a person who is mentally really "getting it" but is not aware how his/her actions are fighting against it. Or on the other end, there is a person to whom all this comes naturally but he/she cannot describe it at all or doesn't even realize what he/she is doing differently ( oh what a bliss that would be!).

Thank you for visiting my blog!