Pleistocene Horses, The Zebro, The Tarpan and the Sorraia / A Shared Ancestry?

Belina and her 2009 filly, Encantara

Author's Note
New information has been added to this journal entry on 09Feb11 and is identified by this symbol: ‡
  

Long before men of letters began to chart equine ancestry, informative "clues" found their way into buried earth, painted caves and ancient literature, titillating us with a variety of possibilities regarding the origins of present day horses. The clues are vastly scattered, incomplete and tangled with professional points of view. Making matters even tricker to gain a consensus on, the technology utilized by the scientific community continues to find new ways to interpret old data as well as developing novel tests which generate entirely new data. Following taxonomic twists and turns, determining equine relationships and reviewing theories of origin and domestication has never been more confusing (at least for lay people like myself) and at the same so exciting.


My interest lies in the enigmatic progenitors which are responsible for the archaic horse that today we know as the Iberian Sorraia.

Last month, Spanish Sulphur Horse enthusiast, Kimberlee Jones, left these comments in the Journal of Ravenseyrie: "The Sorraia has no documentation of being a wild horse nor having a history before the 1920's. So, comparing them to a real wild horse like the Przewalski horse is a leap. What I am saying is that they have no history. Thus, nothing to support claims of them being a wild horse nor of being an ancestral horse."

In his book, Born Survivors on the Eve of Extinction, Hardy Oelke has written: "The Sorraia has absolutely no history of a domestic breed, only that of a wild animal, and even as such it had fallen into oblivion and become almost extinct until its rediscovery earlier this century." [20th-lg.] This perception is reiterated on Oelke's website dedicated to the Sorraia.

Ms. Jones is stating that because there is no documented history of the Sorraia originating from wild, undomesticated horses, they must, therefore, represent a man-made breed developed by Portuguese zoologist, Dr. Ruy d'Andrade, in the early twentieth century.

Hardy Oelke perceives the same lack of direct evidence on the Sorraia's ancestors as proof that they did not originate from domestic breeds (of which the Iberians have kept scrupulous records for hundreds of years) and instead must be a remnant of indigenous wild fauna that remained obscured until d'Andrade discovered their presence while on a hunting expedition in Coruche near the lower Sorraia river.


When faced with such different perceptions regarding the origins of the Sorraia horses, many people maintain that it was historically impossible for there to have been any true wild horses surviving into modern times in Iberia (the land famous for its long documented history of breeding the exquisite Lusitano and Pura Rasa Espanola [Andalusian] horses) and that at best the atavistic horses which, in the 1920's, Dr. Ruy d'Andrade had observed living a wild existence in such a remote region were simply feral horses of highly mixed heritage...(although horses of highly mixed heritage are as a rule not homogenous in appearance and behavior as are the Sorraias.)

Mares and foals on the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve - 2009

Why did d'Andrade, a renowned zoologist, hippologist, author, historian and expert horse breeder, not come to the same conclusion?

Why, after examining all the evidence available to him during that time period did d'Andrade document that the archaic looking horses he saved from extinction were most assuredly a surviving remnant of the indigenous wild horse of southern Iberia? Why did he find them to be so different from the domestic horses as to describe them as "generally in all aspects absolutely wild, or primitive, as if they were a species of zebra, or a hemionus (half-ass) species"? Why did he on the one hand suspect these primitive horses were closer to Equus stenonis than Equus caballus and yet on the other theorize that they might be the ancestral forebear of the very Lusitano horses he had been expertly breeding for years?

Dr. Ruy d'Andrade was perhaps the most respected and trusted hippological voice in Iberia in his day and he would certainly know that in the Sorraia he had discovered a repository of ancestral genetics...if not 100% pure any more, certainly recoverable through selective breeding based on their unique phenotype. Indeed, we owe d'Andrade a great deal of respect for saving the loss of such a link with antiquity.

But how does one feel assured that these horses do indeed provide us with a genetic link reaching back to the Pleistocene? Where's the proof? How does one gain such proof knowing the horses d'Andrade put upon his preserve have no documented pedigree? If these horses (like so many indigenous peoples) had passed down through tens of thousands of generations an oral tradition of their origins, they are keeping mute on the subject. Until we relearn to communicate with horses via direct perception and become privy to their storehouse of knowledge on the subject of their origins via heart-based cognition, we will have to dig around in the dirt and scientific articles to further our understanding of these matters. [Humor me, this little joke of sorts, that perhaps only readers of Stephen Harrod Buhner's work can appreciate.]

In reflecting upon these questions and the opinions of those who discredit the Sorraia by defining it as modern man-made colour breed, as so often happens I realize that linear thinking by its own nature is prone to missing important evidence, or dismissing it, because it doesn't fit the accepted scientific paradigm. There is a phrase I have come across in my studies of equine origins, human origins, Paleolithic art and other prehistoric themes--"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

And yet, if we look into a broader plane of potential sources of information and compare it collectively with the living presence of the Sorraia and Sorraia Mustang horses, we see that indeed we have quite a bit of evidence to support the supposition that these horses represent, not a completely pure form of ancestral equine, but a definite genetic repository of primitive traits remarkably similar, if not identical to certain types of prehistoric wild horses.

[To read more information for and against the prehistoric heritage of the Sorraia read this journal entry:  The Sorraia's Prehistoric Relatives / Countering an Historian's Critique ]

I look upon the Sorraia and Sorraia Mustang horses as though they are the visual image on the box top of a jigsaw puzzle. When we open the box, we find our job of putting the puzzle together properly is made more challenging because some of the puzzle pieces are missing. (In fact this same situation is apparent for the Przewalski horse and the Tarpan.) We are fortunate, however, because we still have the picture on the box top (the Sorraia in the flesh!) to assist us.

Archaeologists typically do not have the luxury of possessing the box top to their puzzles, and so in trying to put their puzzle pieces together they are forced to guess, extrapolate, surmise, theorize, etc. as to what full image their bones, teeth and related data might reflect. What a subjective task! How easily misinterpreted!

Fidalgo (Altamiro x Belina)

A skull, a cannon bone, a tooth with its enamel folds reading like a map...are these the only acceptable indicators of the existence of a creature--especially when one takes into account how many creatures lived, died and decayed and how scant and random the fossil record is by comparison? Catastrophic occurrences, geological disruption and the efficiency of organic decay all affect the archaeological record, making whatever we find just a small glimpse of an incomplete image of all that was.

To try to gain more clues, providing us more puzzle pieces, the best researchers incorporate other types of information which might include oral traditions, folklore, historic literature, language usage, settlement patterns, environmental influences, etc.

Within the writings of Ruy d'Andrade, Hardy Oelke and Paulo Gaviao Gonzaga we find many of these other types of information have already been discussed and certainly with greater scholarliness than I'm capable of, so please seek out their writings by consulting the bibliography at the end of this journal entry. I will however highlight this information and include some additional elements which my own searchings have chanced upon. I don't expect the "evidence" presented here to satisfy those who believe the Sorraia is not a wild subspecies of Equus, but I do hope that sharing this information within the Journal of Ravenseyrie prompts those interested to understand why some concerned individuals are diligent in their desire to preserve the Sorraia and Sorraia Mustangs.

PALEOLITHIC ART

Most of us have seen the evocative images of horses painted or etched in European caves and carved into useful or decorative objects, and it is obvious that a many of those images which continue to get reproduced in articles and books bear a striking resemblance to the Asian Wild Horse, more familiarly known as Przewalski's horse--but this is not the only equine form represented.

Having studied a variety of sources to further my own technique of rock painting, I can relay to readers that the reproduced images of Paleolithic horses represent a small fraction of the actual images present from this time period. Copyright infringement keeps me from scanning those supportive images I have found in books and reproducing them here, however, as you can see, I've done simple tracings of them to help illustrate this journal entry. The books I used for these tracings are listed in my bibliography for those who'd like to see for themselves the photos I've referenced.


Not a one of these images is "proof" that the horses depicted are THE ancestors of the Sorraia, however, I bring them to our attention because they certainly suggest a related phenotype which has survived into modern times.

Most every book, article or breed website dedicated to Iberian horses will point to images in Paleolithic art as reflecting the heritage of their horses. The prehistoric likenesses of the Sorraia are most often recorded as coming from the caves at Escoural in Portugal and La Pileta in Spain. There are other likenesses to be seen elsewhere, as you can see from my tracings interspersed within this journal entry, certainly enough to dispel the misconception that (as quoted from an email I received from a Sorraia debunker) "IMO, the cave paintings look like the Mongolian wild horse, not a Sorraia."


In his book, A History of the Horse, Gonzaga quotes A. Rosenfeld (who is relaying Zeuner's thoughts from [A History of Domesticated Animals (London, 1963)]:
"Zeuner has suggested that some at least, of the horses represented in Palaelolithic art are more like the tarpan than the Przewalski horse. He refers particularly to the frieze of small bi-chrome horses of Lascaux."

Horses in Lascaux cave - image from Wikipedia Commons

Later, Gonzaga quotes Miklos Jankovich discussing the obvious variety of horses represented in Paleolithic art:
"One such variety, apparently about the size of Grevy's zebra among modern equines, and perhaps striped (since some European pony breeds show vestigial stripes on the legs and blurred marks on the shoulder, in combination with an eel-stripe), represents the unknown factor in the ancestry of our domestic horses."

‡ [Perhaps this small equine which Jankovich says "represents the unknown factor in the ancestry of domestic horses" is the late Pleistocene horse Equus caballus antunesi, (Cardoso and Eisenmann 1989), see updated bibliography for links. I have only just begun to try to understand whether or not E. antunesi may figure into the prehistoric heritage of the Sorraia. So far I have only found the one paper (in French, and I cannot read French) but the description of a small, slender horse in southern Iberia in the late Pleistocene is certainly intriguing enough to keep checking into.]
Commenting on this Gonzaga writes, "Very interesting is the description above of 'vestigial stripes on the legs and blurred marks on the shoulder', typical of the Sorraia of Portugal. It is also important to repeat that during the Palaeolithic, such a rich and varied collection of art and such strong proof of the presence of indigenous wild horses existed nowhere else other than Iberia and Southern France."

Further evidence that some of the images in Paleolithic art reveal an equine form much more reminiscent of the Sorraia than the Przewalski horse, I'll bring up R. Dale Guthrie's hefty tome titled, THE NATURE OF PALEOLITHIC ART. In this book Guthrie offers his own sketches based on the thousands of images he has viewed in person or seen in photos, many of which show long-necked, cleaner-limbed horses with convex profiles, indistinct or possibly falling manes and the absence of the "mealy" mouth colouring. This book also contains many examples which resemble the Przewalski horse, among other prehistoric pony-type equines. Those images featured which bear a more Sorraia-type resemblance are listed as belonging to these locales:
Cosquer (France), Momtastruc (France), La Paloma (Spain), Altamira (Spain), Montrespan (France), Teyjart (France), Pasiega (Spain), Trois Freres (France), Lascaux (France), Gabillou (France), Mayenne-Sciences (France), Pech-Merle (France), Pont d'Ambon (France)



Unfortunately, though Guthrie discusses striping patterns in equines, he does not offer any contemplation on the obvious phenotypical variation which occurs in Paleolithic art, sometimes even within the same location as those images the are more Przewalski-like. Like so many authors, Guthrie considers Przewalski's horse to be the only living representative of horses which lived during the Pleistocene neglecting to mention the fact that other living specimens of primitive equines (like the Exmoor pony for example) also fit the "descriptions" revealed in Paleolithic art. Not even the Tarpan figures into Guthries work here, but then this book was not intending to take up the multi-origin of equines controversy.

Photograph from Lascaux cave – Prof saxx / Wikipedia

Sedutor (Altamiro x Zorita)

Within the data base of Paleolithic images which I have reviewed, many display colouring which resembles grulla (mouse grey), with dark muzzles and uniform to dark colored underparts, unlike the tan and reddish (yellow dun) of the Przewalski types which also have light muzzles (mealy mouth) and light underbellies along with distinctive differences in conformation.

Equus ferus przewalskii- image from Wikipedia Commons

With the amount of Paleolithic art discovered, and so little of it reproduced for viewing, it is not inappropriate for us to expect there are many more images which we haven't viewed that share characteristics with the Sorraia, even if they are not as abundant as those which reflect the Przewalski horse type. My conclusion is that there are a sufficient amount of images from this prehistoric period that share similarities with the Sorraia and Sorraia Mustangs as to suggest a potential ancestral relatedness.

On now to some other puzzle pieces that lend support to the Sorraia's origins reaching back into antiquity...

STRABO'S HISTORICAL NOTES

The Greek historian and geographer, Strabo left us a puzzle piece in his "Geographical Sketches" c. 14 A.D.) regarding the presence of wild horses in Iberia:

"Iberia produces many deer and wild horses."
(Book III, Chapter 4 pg. 107)

A marginal reference to be sure, and gives no hint as to the phenotype these wild horses displayed, but at least confirms that wild horses were present in the region during that time period.

The Sorraia stallion, Altamiro on the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve, Manitoulin Island

ST. ISIDORE OF SEVILLE'S HISTORIC NOTES

The bishop of Seville, St. Isidore, compiled a comprehensive encyclopedia of his time ( c. 615 and early 630) within which he writes:

"The dosinus horse is so called because its color is that of an ass (de asinus); it is also known as ash-colored (cinereus). These originate from wild stock, which we call equi-ferus, and therefore they cannot be used as city horses.

"There are three kinds of horses: one well-bred, suited for battles and riders; the second common and ordinary, suited for draft work, not for riding; the third originating from a mixture of different species, which is called a hybrid (bigener), because it is born from different species, like the mule."

While the good bishop has not provided a significant morphological overview of the wild horses which were present in Iberia during his time, he certainly gives us a good clue that those wild horses were grullo (mouse-dun) that they were not donkeys, or half-asses or hybrids, but nevertheless were distinct from domestic horses.

THE MYSTERIOUS ZEBRO

There have been historic references to the zebro (who's name alters slightly depending on location) as a moniker for specific geographic locales, a species of game animal and a supreme quality of hide. Curiously, the zebro itself has been a mysterious and controversial creature, with one group of people concluding it to be Equus hydruntinus (European wild ass), and another group of people convinced it was as Equus ferus (a wild horse). Which is it? Myself and others consider the zebro are the southern Iberian form of equus ferus (making them a Tarpan variant, but more on that in a separate journal entry) and we also feel that the Sorraia is a living remnant of the zebro. Let's have a look at some of the zebro wrangling which has taken place and perhaps understand a bit better why the Sorraia is the best candidate fitting the description of the zebro.

As we read about the ambiguity of the Zebro, we should keep in mind that for many years Equus lambei (the Yukon Horse) was classified as a half-ass until the mid-1990's when a partially mummified carcass was discovered which clearly demonstrated that this equid was definitely a horse and not a hemione or asinus.

The description of animals living around Chinchilla (southeastern Spain) as found in a passage from the medieval hunting treatise, El Libro de la Monteria, tells us about the "encebras" (zebros), which are coloured like rats, with dark muzzles, whinnying like mares do and though small could run faster than typical riding horses--clearly bringing up the image of the Sorraia horse to mind and not the pangare modified dun colour or strident braying of a wild ass.

Equus asinus - image from Wikipedia Commons

In a paper titled, "Man-made Desert: Effects of Economic and Demographic growth on the Ecosystems of Arid Southeastern Spain, the Environmental History" in addition to discussing the alterations in the Iberian landscape and environment over the centuries due to the invasive activities of humans, the authors (Latorre, et al) highlight the animals considered worthy game as documented in King Alfonso VI's hunting manual:

"This and other texts from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries describe the same animals, as well as roe deer, wolves (Canis lupus), the common crane (Grus grus) -a bird associated with open oak woodlands, otters (Lutra lutra), and an exotic and mysterious animal known in the Middle Ages as zebra or "encebra" in Spain and Portugal." What were zebras doing in Europe? They were, in fact, a wild equine breed, probably the extinct Equus hydruntinus."

Miguel Telles Antunes came to the same conclusion that the Zebro was Equus hydruntinus, but concurs with colleague Vera Eisenmann that e. hydruntinus was actually Equus hemionus (half-ass) and not Equus asinus (wild ass, donkey). He lists under his "evidence" segment that the only skeletal material of this half-ass discovered in Portugal are two teeth! The rest of his "evidence" (which is admirably exhaustive) deals with toponyms and medieval documents. While his assessment of places names coupled with the two teeth and other obscure mentions of zebro in public records and the aforementioned hunting treatises demonstrated to him that the Zebro was an hemione and not a horse, it is not universally accepted, hence the reason the Latorre paper says the zebro was only "probably" the extinct Equus hydruntinus. Likewise in Orlando, et al's paper, Geographic Distribution of an Extinct Equid (Equus hydruntinus: Mammalia, Equidae) Revealed by Morphological and Genetical Analyses of Fossils, they say of E. hydruntinus only that it "may be mentioned in Portuguese manuscripts dating to the Middle Ages."

Zorita, Segura and Encantara

The trouble with a definite determination of whether the Zebro was a wild horse like the Sorraia or a half-ass like the onager received great debate as documented in a rather long article Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcelos' Forgotten Sketch of an Unfinished Monograph on E(n)-Zebra 'Wild Donkey' author Yakov Malkiel tells us of the many etymological studies that had been undertaken by literary scholars who determined to understand what animal the "zebro" referred to, since it had been used in prose and poetry over the ages, and how it differed from the word "zebra" which we know today refers to the black and white striped equines in Africa. Writes, Malkiel,

"We have then, before us, not just one problem, but two separate problems, of equal relevancy but entirely different scope: (a) the actual etymology of medieval a-, e(n)zebra, shared by Old Portuguese and Old Spanish: almost certainly the Latin compound equiferus, lit. 'wild horse'; and (b) the transfer of one variant of this polymorphic label to an entirely different animal species, under historically verifiable conditions."

While the the monograph remained unfinished, it appears that certain scholars believe that the author (though perhaps inconclusive regarding whether or not the zebro was a wild horse) nevertheless found evidence that "the e(n)-zebra had served Moor and Christian alike as an intermittently domesticated, but temperamentally still wild, animal, on a par with, and in the company of, either the horse and the mule" because it was ridden and also it was used for its meat and leather. This concurs with the historical references other authors have highlighted when regarding the zebro.

Equus hemionus - image from Wikipedia Commons

Ending our information regarding the zebro, and whether it was a half-ass or wild horse, let's consider a paper written by Diego Arceredillo in 2008 titled, Morphometric Differences Among the Equids of the Upper Pleistocene From Valdegoba (Burgos, Spain). When comparing dental patterns of equid molars Arceredillo determined the smaller teeth belonged to E. hydruntinus and the larger belonged to Equus ferus and writes, "However, the most representative horse in Europe during the Upper Pleistocene is E. ferus. This horse present the own [sic] features of caballoid equids and is represented at most sites on the Iberian Peninsula." Unless E. hydruntinus exploded in presence in the Iberian Peninsula in later ages, it would appear more likely that only E. ferus was abundant enough to have inspired the many historical mentions of the "zebro".

No one puts the matter to rest more succinctly as does Hardy Oelke on his website, in his five point explanation why it is much more likely the zebro was the indigenous wild horse of that region.

From what we know of the Sorraia, and the Tarpan and the wild horses historically reported to live in Iberia, I find it surprising that researchers haven't considered that the Zebro was a variant of the Tarpan (E. ferus ferus or E. gmelini, depending on who you ask) and that its phenotype has survived extinction in the form of the Sorraia.


D'ANDRADE'S DISCOVERY

According to the Portuguese Sorraia breeders website, The Associação Internacional de Criadores do Cavalo Ibérico de Tipo Primitivo - Sorraia, the group of about 20 primitive horses Ruy d'Andrade came upon when hunting on the Sesmaria estate belonged to Sr. Antonio Anselmo. From what I can tell (using google translator as an assistant) the text does not say that these primitive horses were the result of specific breeding, rather that they were wild equines who had survived in relative isolation from the higher quality horses due to their remote location and the harshness of the environment which could not support the domestic breeds.

Where did Sr. Anselmo acquire them? Did they simply turn up on the estate one day after fleeing from a loss of habitat elsewhere in the region? Or did he "stock" this estate with them as a novelty game animal? There are those that feel the horses were always there, and they have good reason to feel this is so. When I have something more definite to add on this part of the story, I will include edit it in later.

After the death of Sr. Anselmo the website states the herd was broken up and dispersed among different farmers and it was from these sources d'Andrade recovered the nucleus of a breeding herd to place on his own estate as a preservation project, selecting those which most matched the sketches and field notes he made from his first encounter with Sr. Anselmo's herd.

‡ [Thanks to the generous assistance of Constanca Oliveira e Sousa, great granddaughter of Dr. Ruy d'Andrade I have learned that "Sesmaria" is not one particular estate, but rather a sort of "commons" of uncultured lands under shared ownership where semi-deserted herds of horses, lacking in commercial value, lived free range lives reproducing in freedom. The land owners would come and take a horse when necessary (d'Andrade wrote of how they were used to thresh grain) and return it to the sesmaria when the work was done. It was one of these isolated free range herds that d'Andrade notice while on that fateful hunting trip. The particular group he saw was very wild in appearance and behavior and quite uniform in their characteristics. However, years later when Dr. d'Andrade decided to begin a conservation of these horses on his own estate, the horses on the sesmaria were gone and he had to instead select individuals that were now on private breeding farms in the region. Sr. Anselmo was one of the breeders who had among his horses some of these primitive wild types. How fortunate d'Andrade was to have still been able to find specimens that conformed to the phenotype he had originally seen! It is from these individuals that the preservation of these horses began. This information has been compiled from correspondence with C. Oliveira e Sousa in June of 2010]

While no claim of absolute purity is being made, it is of vital consideration to know that the horses d'Andrade brought to his estate where not domestic horses of varying breeds placed together to recreate the indigenous wild horse of the southwest Iberia--like the programs designed to recreate the extinct Tarpan (which led to the Heck horse and the Konik). The Sorraia are autochthonal fauna that were recovered, reunited and allowed to reproduce in their original forms. Whether these horses are the product of generations of offspring from never-tamed wild equines dwelling in the region since the Pleistocene, or escaped captives which became feral, or represent a self-actualized landrace of modern caballine are debates that are likely to remain unsettled. What is uncontroversial is that the behavior, form, colour and reproductive reliability of these Sorraia horses, in addition to the discovery, via mtDNA, that they possess their own unique genotype, clearly demonstrates that these horses are markedly different than domestic horses lending validity to the voices which claim them to be a surviving form of equus ferus.

QUESTIONING THE ORIGINS OF THE PRZEWALSKI HORSE

Having laid out the puzzle pieces that we have to shape together the origins of the Sorraia and recognizing that many questions presently remain unanswerable, I'd like to demonstrate that this is no reason to completely reject the idea that the Sorraia is a form of equus ferus and deserves the same consideration that are given to the Tarpan and Przewalski's horse. Indeed, one can make the case that the history and origins of the Sorraia are less questionable than those of the Tarpan and the Przewalski horse because of the way the foundation for preserving the Sorraia from extinction was undertaken by Ruy d'Andrade.

I'm going to quote from the introduction to the article QUATERNARY HORSES: POSSIBLE CANDIDATES TO DOMESTICATION by Vera Eisenmann, who is perhaps the most respected and devoted researcher of equid paleontology. When an individual of this caliber recognizes the difficulties in exactly determining the origins and appropriate classifications of horses, we should not be so ready to overlook the information that has been part of the story of the Sorraia simply because it is incomplete or misunderstood. Writes M. Eisenmann:

Ever recurring questions about modern horses are: How many species and/or subspecies there are? Are the "Tarpan" and the "Przewalski horse" the same "thing"? How closely related are they to the fossil Pleistocene wild horses? From what stock(s) do the domesticated horses spring?

The very recurrence of the questions is a proof that definitive answers are difficult to give. This paper is no exception and will only try to present some evidence relevant to the questions above.

Before that, two points must be recalled and stressed. Whatever was the "Tarpan", it presently available osteological remains are limited to one complete skeleton (St Petersburg: ZIN 521) and one isolated skull without mandible (Moscow: MGU 94 535). Other specimens labeled "Tarpans" are the result of tentative genetic 'reconstructions' by crossing domestic horses and selecting what individuals appear in their exterior morphology more like to the extinct 'Tarpans'. The other point concerns the "Prezewalski horses". There is every reason to believe that from the moment when they began to interest the international community, and been bought in numbers by zoological parks, these animals were crossed with domestic horses. In result, it is very doubtful whether any presently living animal can be considered as a genetically pure wild "Przewalski horse".--Vera Eisenmann

A Przewalski's horse, named "Vaska" , the first to have arrived in Europe, and trained to accept a rider - image from Wikipedia Commons

It's time that the Sorraia was researched more extensively. While there are quite a number of research papers published which are either devoted to the genetics of the Sorraia, or use the Sorraia as an example in data comparison--all noting that the Sorraia represents a form of differentiated horse yet without a consensual definition, I'd like to see more being done within the broader field of archaeology and morphometric comparisons to pin down the relationship of the Sorraia to the Zebro and to the Tarpan providing even more pieces to the puzzle. So far, excepting for the genetic research on existing Sorraia horses, I have not found any research that has been published regarding an archaeological or historic basis for these horses as being a wild subspecies or a man-made breed one way or the other. I do not doubt a link with antiquity is there--the physical image of the "puzzle" itself gallops over the wide expanses here at Ravenseyrie, along with his dynamic family of mares and foals. Its a timeless image and one we are very, very fortunate to see--it came so close to being forever lost.
Note: There will likely be some updates and edits to this journal entry. (And an entry on the Tarpan will follow at some point.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
References--
BOOKS

--António Henrique R. de Oliveira Marques, Vitor Andre. Daily Life in Portugal in the Late Middle Ages, (1971 University of Wisconsin Press

--Barney, Lewis, Beach & Berghof (trans.). The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (2006 Cambridge University Press)

--Clottes, Jean and Lewis-Williams, David. The Shamans of Prehistory (1996 Harry M. Abrams, Inc. New York)

--Cordeiro, Arsénio Raposo. Lusitano Horse Son of the Wind (1997 Edicoes Inapa, Lisbon)

--Curtis, Gregory. The Cave Painters (2006 Anchor Books, New York)

--Dewar, Elaine. Bones, (2001, Random House Canada)

--Gonzaga, Paulo Gaviao. A History of the Horse (2004 J.A. Allen, London)

--Guthrie, R. Dale, The Nature of Paleolithic Art (2005) The University of Chicago Press

--Hamilton-Smith, Charles. The Natural History of Horses (1841 Edinburgh : W.H. Lizars)

--Hancock, Graham. Supernatural (2005 Century, London)

--Leroi-Gourhan, André. The Dawn of European Art (1982 Cambridge University Press, London)

--Lydekker, R. The Horse and Its Relatives (1912 the MacMillan Company)

--Mashkour, Marjan (ed.), Equids in Time and Space (2006 Oxbow Books)

--Oelke, Hardy. Born Survivors on the Eve of Extinction (1997 Kierdorf Verlag, Germany)

--Oelke, Hardy. Tal Der Wilden Pferde / Valley of the Wild Horses, Vale de Zebro (2009 Limited Edition Self-Published)

--Oom, d'Andrade and Costa-Ferreira. Stud Book da Raca Sorraia (2004 Associacao Internacional De Criadores Do Cavalo Iberico De Tipo Primitivo-Sorraia)

--Ramos, Pedro A. Saura. The Cave of Altamira (1998 Harry M. Abrams, Inc., New York)






RESEARCH ARTICLES

--Arceredillo, Diego. Morphometric Differences Among the Equids of the Upper Pleistocene From Valdegoba (Burgos, Spain) 2008

--Bunzel-Druke, Margret. Ecological substitutes for Wild Horse and Aurochs, 2001

‡--Cardoso, J.L. & Eisenmann, V. Equus caballus antunesi, nouvelle sous-espèce quaternaire du Portugal. (1985 - 1989)


--Eisenmann & Baylac. Extant and fossil Equus (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) skulls: a morphometric definition of the subgenus Equus, 1999

--Eisenmann, Vera. Quaternary Horses: Possible Candidates to Domestication, 1996
www.vera-eisenmann.com/IMG/pdf/114_Forli.pdf -

--Groves, Dr. Colin P. The Przewalski Horse: Morphology, Habitat and Taxonomy retrieved from the internet here:
http://www.noanswersingenesis.org.au/cg_groves_collection.htm

--Hamilton-Smith, Lieut. Col. Charles. Mammalia Horses, excerpted from The Naturalist's Library vol.XX 1866

--Jansen, Forster, Levine, Oelke, Hurles, Renfrew, Weber, & Olek. Mitochondrial DNA and the origins of the domestic horse, 2002

--Latorre, Latorre, & Sanchez-Picon. Dealing With Aridity: Socio-economic Structures and Environmental Changes in An Arid Mediterranean Region, 2000

----Latorre, Sanches & Latorre. The man-made desert: Effects of economic and demographic growth on the ecosystems of arid southeastern Spain, 2001

--Levine, Bailey, Whitwell and & Jeffcott. Palaeopathology and Horse Domestication: the case of some Iron Age horses from the Altai Mountains, Siberia

--Luis, Juras, Oom & Cothran. Genetic diversity and the relationships of Portuguese and other horse breeds based on protein and microsatellite variation, 2007

--Luis, Basto-Silveira, Cothran and Oom. Variation in the mitochondrial control region sequence between the two maternal lines of the Sorraia horse breed, 2002

--Luis, Basto-Silveira, Cothran & Oom. Iberian Origins of New World Horse Breeds, 2006

--Luis, Bastos-Silveira, Costa-Ferreira, Cothran & Oom. A lost Sorraia maternal lineage found in the Lusitano horse breed, 2006

--Luis, Cothran and Oom. Inbreeding and Genetic Structure in the Endangered Sorraia Horse Breed: Implications for its Conservation and Management, 2007

--Malkiel, Yakov. Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcelos' Forgotten Sketch of an Unfinished Monograph on E(n)-zebra 'Wild Donkey', retrieved from the internet here: cvc.instituto-camoes.pt/bdc/lingua/.../30/boletim30_pag1_11.pdf -

--Orlando, Mashkour, Burke, Douady, Eisenmann & Hanni. Geographic distribution of an extinct equid (Equus hydruntinus: Mammalia, Equidae) revealed by morphological and genetical analyses of fossils, 2006

--Royo, Alvarez, Beja-Pereira, Molina, Fernandez, Jordana, Gomez, Gutierrez and Goyache. The Origins of Iberian Horses Assessed via Mitochondrial DNA, 2005

--Vila, Leonard, Gotherstrom, Marklund, Sandberg, Liden, Wayne & Ellegren. Widespread Origins of Domestic Horse Lineages, 2001

WEBSITES

--The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online
http://darwin-online.org.uk/

--http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/3D*.html

--http://www.beringia.com/research/horse.html

--http://www.aicsorraia.fc.ul.pt/

--http://www.sorraia.org/

--http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/tarpan.htm

--http://www.jcaltamirano.com/artenglish.htm#Horses%20in%20Andalusia%20during%20the%20Palaeolithic

‡--http://www.vera-eisenmann.com/

The Way of Winter

Ravenseyrie is a landscape of variable beauty, always changing moods, ever shifting its aesthetic offerings, and often times demanding much of those who have chosen to live in such a wilderness.

Situated roughly 450 feet above Lake Huron's North Channel on the East Bluff of Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island, Ravenseyrie's most frequent elemental spirit is the Wind. Rare is the day when some breeze isn't sweeping across the bluff. In the warm months, such a breeze is easily embraced and even the sustained gusty winds that sometimes linger for days, polishing the tops of the supple prairie grasses is given a nod of appreciation. But come late autumn and winter this same, predominant elemental can present no trivial danger to us intrepid inhabitants.

This December finds Kevin and me seasoned and primed for our fifth winter at Ravenseyrie. Most everything we expected to have ready before our first snowstorm has been neatly tended to. Even so, every year, the first blizzard tests our fortitude in ways that we cannot forsee. This year, it was the 9th of December that Mother Nature popped her cork and gave us our first taste of the full-bodied harshness of winter's brew--and, because Altamiro now insists on keeping his family band separate from the rest of the equine inhabitants of Ravenseyrie this first blizzard served as a catalyst for a rather harrowing experience that particular morning as Kevin and I attempted to get hay out to the horses. (Better get yourself a cup of coffee or a good tall stout, this is a long narrative!)

Kevin gets ready to take his load of hay out to the forest on a cold and gusty day, but thankfully no snowstorm this time!

Probably, before I take readers on our journey into feeding horses during a blizzard, it may be helpful to provide background into the setting we find ourselves in this time of year. I have already mentioned the nearly ever-present wind that our bluff receives. I should relay also, for those who are new to the blog, that there are no run-in-sheds or barns or man-made livestock shelters here at Ravenseyrie. The horses and mules take their shelter during inclement weather in a variety of woodland copses and thick forest. All well and good, these--and likely healthier than any barn could hope to be...the difficulty is not for the horses, rather it is for the humans who want to get food out to where they are.

I'm just now leaving the yard with my load of hay, while Kevin is well on his way ahead of me as the horses finish up their breakfast oats. The destination is the north woods. Kevin will leave his load well to the right of the lone Zen Elm tree and I will leave mine on the left.

Living with (and being born in) the wind, our horses are not made agitated or flighty by the raucous gales and persistently stiff breezes that frequent Ravenseyrie, however, when these same winds occur during heavy rain or snow or during excruciatingly bitter temperatures, the horses and mules do not cross the open grasslands to wait by the house for the feed we provide in winter, and so we bring the feed out to their sheltered woodland cathedrals.

Most days, when there is no winter wind, we are able to feed the horses near the house, and even with Altamiro's "split herd policy" in force, we manage handily by feeding the family band on the west side of the yard and Mistral's group off to the east side. Feeding chores are a snap on such days. On the days when the wind is too brusque to feed in the open, we must work a little harder to assure that the horses are able to dine in relative comfort.

On gentle winter days, Mistral's group takes their meals on the east side of the house.

Altamiro's family band takes their meals on the west side of the house/yard.

We have discovered three favorite windbreak "zones" that the horses generally retreat to during inclement weather in wintertime, two of which are north of the house and the other is to the west.

This year, we began feeding breakfast hay on the first of December after we received a light dusting of snow, but by December third we were committed to morning and late day hay feedings some of which we took to the windbreak zones because winds were cold and strong enough to blow they hay away if we fed in our near-the-house locations. Even with Altamiro's "split herd policy" strictly enforced, we managed to keep everyone happy by arranging Altamiro's group on the lee side of the first copse of trees to the north, and placed Mistral's group in a slight clearing in the forest-proper just to the northeast of Altamiro's spot.

On the day of this year's first island blizzard, the horses of course did not come up for oats and hay near the house, so Kevin loaded up our toboggans, even heavier than usual, and the two of us tightened our scarves bid each other farewell and boldly strode out into the swirling snow towards the northerly wooded windbreaks. As we got halfway to the tree line, Kevin veered off to the northeast and I continued on due north, each of us expecting to find the two herds in their respective locales waiting for us.

It wasn't long before the blowing snow hid Kevin from me. I couldn't see my destination, but along the way, I could discern necessary familiar shapes of shrubs and trees letting me know I was still basically on track. When I reached the natural sheltered area, I was dismayed that Altamiro and his family were not waiting there for me, but I quickly determined that because it was a northeast wind, they may have gone over to the alternate windbreak around the bend in the westerly tree line. I wiped the moisture from my cold nose, shook the snow from the brim of my hat and set off to the westerly woods and even found some tracks which seemed to confirm my sense that this is where Altamiro and his family were waiting for me.

On windless days, the horses can eat out in the open, not far from the house.

When I got to the windbreak spot, after much trudging across the open area, with snow and wind pummeling me all the while, there was no hungry group of horses waiting there either! I followed some tracks deeper around the bend of the woods continuing to intuit that I would find the horses very soon, even though the tracks began to look rather old. In windblown conditions, it is hard for me to determine how fresh the tracks are because often times they are partially already filled in with blown snow. In the end, it would seem my intuition was befuddled by the chaos of the elements and wishful thinking.

Our kitchen table, looking to the north east

By now, my legs and arms are feeling rather rubbery, but I set out again off into the open, charting a diagonal trajectory back towards where I imagine Kevin probably has fed Mistral's group. Part way across the open grassland, during a extremely brief lull between gale driven snow, I imagine that I am seeing snow-clad dark forms moving on the landscape. I stop and lean forward, squinting through the flying snow and listen through the roaring wind, trying to sense if what I am seeing is actually nothing more than distant shrubs swaying with the gusts, or if it is horses on the move. It's Altamrio's group! We meet in the middle and they follow me to the nearest windbreak where I quickly lay out piles of hay for them. They are all completely adorned with snow, even the faces of the foals are wearing white masks, but they seem to ignore all that and gratefully bury their muzzles deep into the welcomed mounds of dried summer. This is the first big winter storm for Encantara, Silvestre and Segura, who look small surrounded by so much whiteness--small, but extremely robust and absolutely at ease with the events of the moment.

Our kitchen table, looking toward the northwest

Quicker now, I head back in the direction which will bring me to open area and though I cannot see the house, I put myself on course to where I know it must be. I'm imagining Kevin has all this while been back in the kitchen sipping coffee by the wood stove and wondering what is taking me so long. As I round the bend of the arm of the woodland copse, I nearly run into Mistral and Zeus. Each of us are surprised and startled, and in moments I am surrounded by the rest of Mistral's group, who are mightily disappointed to see that my toboggan has not one speck of hay left in it. "Oh! No! Where's Kevin?", I exclaim to them. They shake the snow from their heads and follow my tracks soon discovering that Altamiro and his gang are eating hay and rush over to join them.

I decide to keep heading back to the house. I'll reload my toboggan, bring hay out for Mistral's group and then look for Kevin. With my toboggan freshly loaded and halfway back out to the section of the woods where I had left the horses, I meet up with Kevin, who still has his first load of hay. Through the roaring wind and swirling snow, I tell him to follow me and off we go with our hay once again. When we get to the windbreak zone we are dismayed to see that Altamiro has taken his harem and left! (Damn this split-herd policy of Altamiro's) Kevin instructs me to lay out my hay for Mistral's group while he follows the tracks where it appears Altamiro has gone. Expecting that the family band is only a little ways off, tucked into another windbreak, I tell Kevin I will wait here for him and we'll go back to the house together. He agrees and I watch him head off to the northwest, keeping to the edge of the woods, dragging his load of hay.

I see him go in and out of different extensions of the forest, each time expecting him to emerge with an empty toboggan and come back to me. Instead, each time he emerges, he still has a full load and he still keeps trudging to the northwest, until the wind and the snow shroud him from view. I wait and watch the swirling snow, trying to see what might be occurring out there. I can see nothing but white and hear nothing but the wailing, roaring, moaning, rushing noise of the wind. I walk in circles, trying to stay warm, always coming back to Mistral's group, keeping a good sense of where I am in connection to where they are. During one of my circular walks, I spot Altamiro and his group nestled in a copse of trees just to the southwest of where we are! I walk way out into the open in the general direction of where I had last seen Kevin and I jump up and down, flail my arms and try to make myself visible and try to see if I can spot Kevin out there. I'm jumping up and down and pointing to where Altamiro's group is, imagining maybe Kevin can see me even though I cannot see him. The snow swirls on gale winds and I feel suddenly very alone. Where is Kevin? How far away was he going? Even if he went all the way to the far northwest property line, shouldn't he have been back by now? I continue to wait, and walk circles and keep aware of where Altamiro is and peer into the white distance expecting to see Kevin emerge at any moment.

I have grown quite cold, and I begin to imagine all manner of awful possibilities and begin to worry what I should do about this situation. It feels like a lot of time has passed and I decide to go back to the house, put more wood on the fire, warm up a bit, reload my toboggan and then come back out to look for Kevin and feed Altamiro's group the hay. On the walk back, without knowing if returning to the house is the right decision to have made, some truly horrific scenes play in my mind as I think of what tragedy has befallen Kevin. During that time completely dark and hopeless thoughts overtook my usual optimism and I contemplated what on earth I would do if Kevin were laying injured or dead out there in the wilderness...how would I find him? What could I do when I did find him? If he is dead, what will become of me? How could I possibly carry on without him? Where is Kevin? Where is Kevin? Where is Keivn?

I make it back to the yard. One of the tarps Kevin has covering things there has been torn loose and the wind is trying to steal it completely. I stop and re-secure the fastenings and before going into the house, I scan the open fields one last time hoping to see Kevin. And I do! There he is, emerging from the west, his toboggan empty...he must have found Altamiro's group! I run out to meet him. I hug him tightly while simultaneously admonishing him for having gone so far away for so long. "Never, never, never again do such a thing!", I scream to him in the wind. Poor, weary, cold man--with crusted snow and ice covering his eyebrows, mustache and beard, the last thing he needs is to be scolded by his wife--yet my frustration and relief must be expressed in this way, for I was truly frightened by this episode. "This type of weather is not to be trifled with!" "We cannot do something so foolish ever again!" "We could die out there...you could have died out there, Kevin!"

We got back to the house, we restarted the fire from the remaining coals and noted that we had been trudging out in the blizzard with toboggans of hay for over three and a half hours! As we each begin sharing each other's experiences, Kevin reveals to me that at one point, he was so utterly exhausted from pulling that toboggan through the snow that he just had to sit down for awhile. He says he can imagine how people become fatigued and cold and give themselves over to just sitting still and falling into a sort of sleep until they freeze to death. He only allowed himself to sit there long enough to regain a little strength and then he made himself go back to searching for Altamiro's group, which he eventually found. He never felt completely lost, though a few times a little disoriented, mainly because of the fatigue and the chaos of the storm. Thankfully both Kevin and I are intimately familiar with the landscape here and so despite the white out conditions, what tree and rock forms we could discern were apt indicators of where we were in relation to the lay of the land.

Our trusty Jøtul F 602 has us soon warmed up again (see Kevin in his study on the computer?)

Our mistake, when we didn't find the horses in the usual windbreaks was to take it upon ourselves to go searching for them in blizzard conditions. We've decided that in the future, whether the horses are in the usual windbreak zones or not, we will leave their hay there, in two different spots for each herd and just allow them to find it on their own terms.

There are some other options we have for feeding arrangements in winter which we discussed as we returned to our senses after the morning's ordeal. Keeping in mind that we are working with 800lb. round bales of hay, here are some of the options we reviewed:

--strategically place the hay bales out in different windbreaks prior to the onset of winter, keeping them well covered with tarps and opening them up to the horses as needed.

--until the snow gets too deep, use the tractor to bring hay out to the windbreak areas for both morning and late day feedings.

--once the snow is too deep for a tractor, buy a snowmobile and use it to haul our toboggans of hay out to the windbreak areas.

--build a windbreak shelter up closer to the house

--some day we will have a barn built...be sure to structure it so that it provides a means of a two separate windbreaks for feedings that can support Altamiro's split herd policy.


For now, we have decided to stay with our usual manner of manually delivering hay for the horses to the usual distant windbreaks when the wind necessitates it. Why do we do it this way? Why not get a snowmobile and make it easier on ourselves? Both Kevin and I feel that to use the body as much as we can to accomplish the various chores that need doing is not only better for the environment, but better for us physically as well. We don't want an easy life, we want a fulfilling, healthy, wilderness-inspired robust life with a good balance of aesthetic beauty and hard work which benefits us body, mind and spirit. And we want to experience this environment in all its moods which assists us in appreciating what it is like for the horses to live in such a rugged setting.

So its a choice we have willingly made, to experience winter in this manner. It feels like a rich life to me...exhausting and sometimes frightening, but exquisitely alive! If Kevin and I learn from our mistakes, and be sure to respect nature in all her moods, we will continue to be part of all that is so exquisitely alive here for many, many years to come.

Unearthly Moods, Mute Allegories, Hidden Myths

The powerfully imaginative artist/illustrator, N.C. Wyeth had this to say about the depth of feeling he had for the natural world:

The universe towers in my mind a great overpowering mystery. The significance of the tinest speck of bark on the pine tree assumes the proportions of the infinite sky. My brain almost bursts with the effort to really appreciate the meaning of life.

In our case we will be enchanted by the bark of an Eastern White Cedar tree at Ravenseyrie

Andrew Wyeth, son of N.C. was equally passionate about expressing the emotion of nature, attempting to relay something "more" than a literal view of what he was seeing and feeling. About Andrew Wyeth's work, biographer Richard Meryman writes:

Even the surface realism of Wyeth's work is part of the secrecy, a form of concealment creating drama. In all areas of his life his interest is in atmospheres and tones, not the accuracy of facts. His real subjects are the secrets that only he has sensed and plumbed, personal meanings within metaphors and unearthly moods--mute allegories--hidden myths.

James Wyeth, son of Andrew, grandson of N.C. is equally gifted as a painter and reveals through his art the "larger than life" drama that vibrates behind even the simplest things. James H. Duff has written of James Wyeth's work:

Among his animal images, Portrait of Pig is certainly the best known. It may well stand as an emblem of the others. This is surely the archetypal sow, shown in great detail, nearly life size, and in her element. but at the same time, this is an individual, a careful portrait based on as much study as any of the artist's human portraits. "I get as involved with a sheep as I do a president of the United States," he says. The pride often visible in the people he paints is also a strong feature in his animals. And in them we see as much character, as much personality, perhaps, as it is possible to see in any animal that must be frozen in two dimensions and in time.

You might have guessed by now that to provide these brief glimpses into the motivating principles behind three generations of Wyeth art is intended to call your attention to the landscape and inhabitants of Ravenseyrie and punctuate the mythical aspects inhaled and exhaled by every element presiding in this place and time. Like these intense men, whose artistic outpouring was fueled by an appreciation for nature and its "great overpowering mystery", I find myself urged (sometimes feverishly so) to show, through my own art and writing that the universe is intelligently alive--with each aspect of its expression worthy of our attention, our reverence and our exaltations of thanksgiving.

Ciente (more ears for Eva)

It may be one of the great tragedies of the modern world that too few humans embrace "unearthly moods" and instead make every effort to insulate themselves from atmospheric vicissitudes. Likewise we have been culturally shaped to discount the wealth of information of "mute allegories" resonating among horses, trees and rocks, etc. And though we enjoy epic cinematic tales like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, in our everyday habits we support the supercilious marginalization (or outright suppression) of the "hidden myths" present in the seemingly mundane aspects of nature.


When you live in the wilderness, when you dance out in a gale wind, when you engage in dialogues with primitive horses, when the slant of light in a darkened forest beckons like a crooked finger--all synthetic, "virtual" living falls away and you come to realize that parts of yourself embody the wind, the forest, the shapeliness of horses, and it all has mystical, mythical meaning.

Zorita and Segura

For myself, then, the images of long necked, convex headed, dark-faced striped horses, first chronicled in Paleolithic art, commented upon in medieval hunting texts and pictured in the work of d'Andrade swing like a pendulum from then to now, demonstrating that Altamiro and his family band here at Ravenseyrie, like living fossils, tell us that the wild zebro, the ancestral tarpan variant continues to survive. Along with their obvious primeval morphology, a definite intellectual capacity--expressed with rich directness-of-being and enhanced by their veritable rusticity--extends to me an invitation to experience a "time before time".


In his book, The Secret Teachings of Plants/The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature, Stephen Harrod Buhner writes:

You may find, as you walk on a certain piece of land, that a mood comes over you that you cannot escape. This may come not only from the living organisms of the place, the self-organized ecosystem itself, but also from something that happened there, some history of Man. For the historical events that have occurred before us remain in the land, interwoven with the soil, set in stone. And, if your heart-field is open, they will come into you as you walk.

As readers of this journal are by now well aware, peculiar flights of fancy are a way of life for me. While I do not think that that the quintessential Ebhardt Form III ancestral equine galloped over the very bluff that Altamiro and his family band now do and extended their friendship and willing service to ancient island dwellers leaving a memory infused in the landscape, I do find that the present convergence of these horses, this particular wilderness place and Kevin and myself has stimulated some curious thoughts and sensations. A concept posed in an earlier journal entry wondered, is it possible that these types of horses partnered with humans in ways that were mutually beneficial--a sort of "domestication" story that reads differently than the "capture, subdue and enslave" methods repeatedly published in books? The way Altamiro's herd has determined, of their own choosing, that they desire to engage with me in mutual learning experiences, completely at liberty in the big wide open sets one's mind to imagining some ancient men and women experienced the same thing and built meaningful relationships with wild horses that did not include eating them or coercing them into service by force.

Belina

By now I had hoped to have written an in depth essay demonstrating why I feel (as did d'Andrade, as do many others) that the Sorraia horse is not a domestic breed, but a remnant of an ancestral form of horse, however my research is still prompted to turn over obscure stones and I am a-ways off from feeling satisfied enough to put my layman's assumptions out there among the assumptions of published scholars. And here I've gone even further out on the fringe exploring convoluted notions of the possibility that ancient humans and horses could have come together within the context of friendship and mutuality!

I must blame (thank!) the "unearthly moods", "mute allegories" and "hidden myths" for such crazy-minded suppositions. Again, I will quote from Buhner's book:

The Greeks had a word for the heart's ability to perceive meaning from the world: 'aisthesis'. "In Aristotelian psychology," James Hillman notes, "the organ of aisthesis is the heart; passages from all the sense organs run to it; there the soul is 'set on fire.' Its thought is innately aesthetic and sensately linked with the world."

Aisthesis denotes the moment in which a flow of life force, imbued with communications, moves from one living organism to another. The word literally means "to breathe in." It is a taking in of the world, a taking in of soulful communications that arise from the living phenomena in that world...[ ]...this basic experience--this aisthesis--has been at the root of human relationship with the world since our evolutionary expression out of the Earth. We are built to experience it, to be aware that each thing possesses a unique identity, its own particular 'eachness'. We are made for the nature of each thing to pass into us through our hearts, which think about it, store memories about it, and engage in dialogue with it.

I can continue to give myself over to exploring the sensations and ideas that the wilderness landscape and primitive horses have strummed in to me via that great organ of perception--the heart, or I can quit these flights of fancy and plop myself down in a chair by the radio and listen to what new course of action the United States and Canada intends to take over in Afghanistan while being reminded that Christmas shopping is good for the economy.

Close your eyes...where do you suppose you will find me?

When I close my eyes, do you know what I see?--I see You, joining me out on the fringe, feeling your way in new territory as the hidden myth present in your own horses begins to reveal itself.

Like N.C. Wyeth said, "My brain almost bursts with the effort to really appreciate the meaning of life."