Tourist season is winding down, August has begun trying on September's clothing and I still am unable to devote the necessary time to writing journal entries dedicated to the mares, as promised, or give the virtual museum tour of the art exhibition many requested and also I know many are wondering if Encantara, Animado and Segura made their trip to Cheyenne, Wyoming to begin their new life with the Olson's at their Soul of Sorraia ranch. Next month we will do the mare articles and take you on the virtual art tour, but for now, at the very least (before this summer month completely ends without any journal entry whatsoever!) I thought I'd better steal some time at the studio to provide an update on how things have been going here at the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve.
Altamiro (our amazing Birdchaser) has been recovering from a ligament injury since June 1st (story of this in a future entry) which slowed him down, but did not keep him from tending his harem stallion duties. Though it took awhile, he is almost completely back to his usual vigorous self.
Our Manitoulin Island summer this year has been unusually humid, with quite a bit of rain and high temperatures causing the horses to most of the time stay hidden in the forest during daylight hours and reserve grazing times for the early mornings and evenings. The biting flies have been like a plague and keep the horses is perpetual motion even as they while away the day in their chosen shady groves. It must feel like heaven to them when it rains!
Zorita's filly, Levada, takes advantage of her mother's tail during a rough day of being pestered by flies
Belina's filly, Tocara, itching a fly biteQuite some time ago, Kevin completed the special fencing in of a "holding pasture" which ties in to the old cattle sorting corral, where he also erected a run-in shelter. When it comes time to bring in off the range those youngsters destined to live away from Ravenseyrie, they will receive their veterinary inspections and more formalized halter training in this segregated space while they await transport to their new lives.
Here we have (back to front) Encantara, Interessado, Fada and Animado, the four half-Sorraia youngsters who were expelled from the family band and now run with Mistral's group.
The Polish Arabian gelding, MistralThose who have checked out the "offspring sold" page at the top of this blog will know that Mike and Sheri Olson of the Soul of Sorraia ranch in Cheyenne, Wyoming where expecting to come pick up Animado, Encantara and Segura in mid-July. However, there is one unanticipated delay...Altamiro has not yet expelled Segura from the family band.
Typically these natural weanings have occurred at Ravenseyrie when the fillies and colts approached their first birthdays. In 2009, Animado and Interessado were hazed out of the natal group, but Fada left on her own. Early this spring, when Encantara was only ten months old, Altamiro hazed her (quite roughly) until she was convinced that he would no longer accept her presence in the family band.
We would have expected Silvestre and Segura to have been ousted by now and joined up with their half-siblings who run with Mistral's group, but so far, there is no sign that Altamiro is contemplating a shift in herd dynamics.
Ravenseyrie is not presently set up with the type of infrastructure which allows for more than one holding area, and the one that we have cobbled together is located on the east side of the house and yard which Altamiro considers to be the camp of Mistral's group and therefore will not allow his family to go near this sector. While it is possible that we could lure Segura and Silvestre into our yard, in the likely event that they and other family members panic at a forced separation, the area is not sufficiently secure or safe from potential mishaps.
I had been mentally and physically cramped up inside, finding sleep difficult and the future tenuous to think that we might miss this opportunity with the Olson's and the more I contemplated trying to make things happen so that we could have everyone ready to go by the end of July, the more it felt "wrong". Both Kevin and I decided to not force the situation, but instead wait for Altamiro's proper timing, whatever that may be.
Leave all things to take their natural course, and do not interfere. --Anonymous (from the book A Little Treasury of Chinese Wisdom)
Thankfully, the Olson's feel the same way and are willing to wait for things to "take their natural course", even if it means that the coming of winter will postpone them bringing the youngsters home with them until next spring.
Zorita's 2009 filly, Segura (foreground), with Silvestre and CienteThere are positive aspects to this postponement, one of which is that when the leading authority on Sorraia and Sorraia Mustang horses, Hardy Oelke, and his wife Rose come to Ravenseyrie in early September, they will be able to see all the primitives in the setting which they were born.
Meanwhile, I get to enjoy these wonderful young horses a little longer. I'm certain things have transpired the way they have for a special reason and though I do not know what the future holds, I continue to recite my personal affirmation: "believe in goodness prevailing."
22 comments:
Lynne, I have missed your posts but appreciate it is a busy time of year for you. Thank you for the update. Your blog is always inspiring and insightful. I will carry the phrase "let things take their natural course" with me over the next few days, a good reminder of trusting the universe to manage herself.
Hilary
Maybe he's just especially fond of Silvestre and Segura ... ?
Like June, I am wondering what Altamiro thinks about the situation. Did you explain to all the group what you are doing: the blog, the saling of offsprings, your art work at the museum, the fact that you choose a art work of Altamiro for your publicity...and the corral that Kevin did for the vet and the training?
For the flies, did you consider adding specific plants that confuses flies like garlic, lavender,thyme,jasmine,peppermint,ect... I will be experimenting next year on my small lot so I would appreciate your imput.
I have notice that you are most of the time dress in long skirts, I had a art teacher in high school who favored long skirts too and she was a fan of Laura Ashley's collection, do you know that designer and where did it started the skirt style as I had also seen a picture of you in winter cross country skying dress with a long skirt.
Hilary, things are beginning to slow down, and beginning in September, I will switch over to "off season" hours--this will have me working 4 hours five days a week instead of 6 hours six days a week. More time to offer the blog, with surely a lot of catching up to do with summer stories from the horses.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
June inquired:
"Maybe he's just especially fond of Silvestre and Segura ... ?"
If so, it isn't obvious to me, June--but since he is in charge, one can only guess that he has things arranged right now just the way he desires them to be.
Bonjour, Monica-Many-Questions!
#1. "Like June, I am wondering what Altamiro thinks about the situation. Did you explain to all the group what you are doing: the blog, the saling of offsprings, your art work at the museum, the fact that you choose a art work of Altamiro for your publicity...and the corral that Kevin did for the vet and the training?"
When you dedicate yourself to communing with life "from the heart", there can be no secrets kept from those you share your world with. So, yes, of course, Altamiro knows precisely the situation.
#2. "For the flies, did you consider adding specific plants that confuses flies like garlic, lavender,thyme,jasmine,peppermint,ect... I will be experimenting next year on my small lot so I would appreciate your imput."
Kevin grows garlic and we have offered it to the horses, but they were not inclined to eat it. They do seek out other herbs that are naturally occurring in their landscape and no doubt some of these have a helpful effect during the seasons when flies disturb them. They actually handle the biting insects much better than we humans do--they do not declare war on them, rather just seek ways to avoid them. Who is to say that there is not some sort of symbiotic relationship between horses and insects that is vital to the balance of the biosphere? I dare not interfere too much, therefore.
I'll answer your last questions in a new comment box, okay?
Getting back to Monica's queries:
#4 "I have notice that you are most of the time dress in long skirts, I had a art teacher in high school who favored long skirts too and she was a fan of Laura Ashley's collection, do you know that designer"
I'm afraid I have never been much into designer fashion...you could say I have no style or inclination to wear clothes that are "en vogue". I have heard of Laura Ashley's collections, mostly because my aunt and mother-in-law have used her fabrics in their home decor.
I suppose if I had an influence that inspired me to dress differently than the average North American woman it would be Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), wonderfully portrayed by Meryl Streep in the film, Out of Africa.
#5. "and where did it started the skirt style as I had also seen a picture of you in winter cross country skying dress with a long skirt."
Back in the days when I was a competition dressage enthusiast, many of us gals would put long wrap skirts over our riding breeches in between classes to keep our show attire clean. I noticed that I liked how I felt when wearing these long skirts.
After dropping out of the competition world, and no longer feeling obliged to wear stretch breeches for riding, I switched to long split-skirts and discovered such delicious liberation! These skirts are far less constrictive than breeches or jeans. They are cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter (because you can layer woolen underwear beneath) and I can still run, climb over fences, practice T'ai chi, hike in the forest, ski across Ravenseyrie and if mutually desired, hop on a horse.
It has been 16 years since I have worn trousers and I have not one pair of pants in my closet.
Thank you for reading and bringing forward your questions, Monica.
Lynne, thanks a lot to answer so quickly. For the group of horses and Altamiro I should have added "explain and discuss" . I understand that all of them are aware of your concerns but do you seek there advice or go into conversion with them ? I can just imagine all the situation out there at your place that would be an opportunity for discussion with a horse on a particular issue.
And "Out of Africa" is a good reference indeed! It's funny you mention it because I thought about it too then went with Laura Ashley's.
Lynne, I love your affirmation "believe in goodness prevailing."
I was thinking lately about how to explain the horse project to an outsider. It would be so easy if one could say, "oh, I'm into dressage, or polo, or trail riding or hunter jumpers." But what do I say? I don't want to say, "Oh, nothing much," because I believe we're engaged in a meaningful project. And thinking about your affirmation, I realized what we're doing - we're witnessing to the goodness of creation. So if someone asks me what I'm doing with my horses, that's what I'm going to say.
And I would like to add that your respect not only for horses but for human beings brings great credibility and honor to you and your Ravenseyrie work.
Monica wrote:
"For the group of horses and Altamiro I should have added "explain and discuss" . I understand that all of them are aware of your concerns but do you seek there advice or go into conversion with them ?"
As I understand things, Alexander Nevzorov has been educating his horses in academics (like Latin) and like his predecessors (the German fellows, von Osten and Krall and let's not forget William Key in the U.S.A.) they immerse the horses into the world of humans and teach the horse to communicate with humans via lexical and symbolic cognition. The results are impressive!
If it is this type of conversing you might be referring to, when inquiring into the communicative exchanges I have with our horses, I am sure to disappoint you, because it is not at this "educated" level that we (the horses and I) know each other.
The conversing we engage in, is much more primitive and direct. J.Allen Boone calls it, "unspoken speaking". In his book "Adventures in Kinshp With All Life" he writes of the "unspoken language thusly:
"This is a language that the wise ancients were highly effective in using, not only with one another but with all other living things, too--a language which, in its purity and soundlessness, contains the utmost in expression, loveliness, eloquence, scope, potency and results. It is a language that is as easy to speak and hear across great distances as it is in intimate closeness."
Later he writes of it more at length after observing certain humans interacting with wild animals in marvelous ways:
"...I saw that all of those odd humans had used the same method in achieving their extraordinary results--in symphonic 'atunement'."
It is this "symphonic atunement" that allows for a flow of communication between myself and the horses. It is the primary means I use to "explain and discuss" and were I seek their advice. If I do not receive a clear answer (as in the case of Altamiro not weaning the remaining yearlings yet) it is only due to my deficiency, not his.
I'll type more of what Boone says about this silent language in a new reply, since the blogger comment box only holds a limited amount of text.
More from J.Allen Boone in his book, "Adventures in Kinship With All Life" as he describes what the "symphonic atunement" that allows for the "unspoken language" to occur between humans wild animals (and all other entities):
"...I saw that all of those odd humans had used the same method in achieving their extraordinary results--in symphonic 'atunement'. The instant that one of them, for the first time, met a wild animal somewhere out in the open, he would become totally motionless. So would the animal. Then the human went into effective invisible action. He did this by mentally sending his genuine admiration, respect, and goodwill across to the animal. And echoing back from the animal there invariably came its best in thinking and feelings. It was like an invisible handshake between two gentlemen--a soul-shake."
"This automatically started a right balance in inner interrelations between them. A corresponding balance took place in their outer interrelations for their mutual expansion. Thus that 'tame human' and 'wild animal' established a unison of understanding and good purpose within as well as without. Then, in that interblending togetherness, they could move happily into the symphonic rhythms of sharing themselves in their totalities atuned to a universal key."
"The 'tame human' and 'wild animal' got to know each other in their unseen as well as seen individualities. An awareness for the possibilities of sharing and desire to share made it easy for them to blend themselves as a twosome, suspended in a fluid mutuality of understanding, of fun, and the fullest possible satisfaction."
What a fine job Boone does of explaining something so ephemeral and unscientific! In his book, "The Secret Teachings of Plants", Stephen Harrod Buhner brings in the science of this type of communication to provide a backdrop for the skeptic-minded humans.
June wrote:
"I realized what we're doing - we're witnessing to the goodness of creation."
You are absolutely spot on, June!
Since I have Boone's book still open from using it as reference for Monica's queries, I'll offer something pertinent to what you've written. After cleverly shifting a conversation he was having with stuffy, superior-minded intellectuals, Boone notes:
"As the evening went rolling along, my host and his professional associates began recalling truly remarkable things that they had watched various kinds of animals do. But now, with a more childlike and intuitive approach, they had come into possession of three important but forgotten facts. The first: that they had been thinking of animals as dumb, inferior, and relatively unimportant formations, and that, consequently, they had been experiencing the results of that kind of negative thinking. The second: that all life is far greater than any of the forms that it appears to assume. And the third: that every living thing reflects an intelligence that the human intellect cannot index nor adequately explain." (J.Allen Boone from "Adventures in Kinship With All Life")
Neat, eh?
And I think you will like this from the introductory tribute written by Paul Herman Leonard:
"Allen's animal books are unusual. Most other animal books are objective. They tell about the training of the animal, about what man does 'toward' or 'to' the animal. But Allen wrote about the 'Law of Reciprocation', meaning that the thoughts that emanate from man come back like a boomerang. He believed that animals are sensitive to the thoughts of humans about them. He was convinced that man must grasp the Law of Reciprocation before he can improve the world. The subtle Law is difficult for civilized man to grasp, but easily understood in primitive cultures."
June, I am so glad that you are thinking and "witnessing to the goodness of creation"! I think Boone would be moved to know how many people are finally coming to do likewise.
Lynne, great example with the "Adventures in kinship with all life" . Carol Graham had sent Michael a copy in 2006 and like many we read and tried to add those type of interactions to our lives.
So yes, I was referring to this aspect of communicating with horses not the Haute Ecole Manage latin reading exercises which would not be practicle in the outdoors ( at least I don't know personally someone who does these exercises in the woods with their horses) and this quote here I find is very important:
"This is a language that the wise ancients were highly effective in using, not only with one another but with all other living things,..." as we have found that at a certain point in history some group of poeple went into alot of trouble to wipe out alot of these ancient ways.
I don't know much about this woman but I suspect that you and she might have something in common. She is an academic specializing in equine behaviour, and has a herd of semi-wild horses. I am going to try to get her book at the library, will probably have to resort to inter-library loans. http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/equinebehavior/Bios/smm_bio.htm
I just found most of Sue McDonnel's book "The Equid Ethogram: A Practical Field Guide to Horse Behavior" free for viewing on Google Books. Love the Internet
Monica wrote:
"I was referring to this aspect of communicating with horses not the Haute Ecole Manage latin reading exercises which would not be practicle in the outdoors "
It felt very good to learn that you and Michael are not strangers to the "silent language" of the ancients. I'm really glad you posed your questions, Monica so that we could come to have an awareness of our shared understanding of this very vital means of relating to our horses and all things.
Re: The Equid Ethogram: A Practical Field Guide to Horse Behavior, by Sue McDonnel, PhD
Janet wrote of Sue McDonnel:
"I don't know much about this woman but I suspect that you and she might have something in common. She is an academic specializing in equine behaviour, and has a herd of semi-wild horses."
Janet, thanks for brining Dr. McDonnel's book to my attention. I'm not sure that she and I look at these equine behaviors in the same manner, and after looking into her book, I feel that she has taken what is a very "alive", fluid and dynamic capacity for rich interactions among horses and reduced them to static, pigeon-holed humanistic interpretations. This is because she has approached her field study with an academic/scientific mien, and in observing and documenting the outward actions of the horses, seems to miss out on the infinite variety of emotional meaning behind the actions. For example, to say a horse rears as an act of domination, or to give a show of greater height, misses out on all the other expressive reasons a horse might have to stand upon his hind legs. I feel it is the type of manual that is reductionist and misleading for those humans who would like to know more about horses. The only true way to know about horses is to enter into a relationship with them, preferably without any preconceived notions and with a pure heart.
What was your impression of her book?
Yeah, I'm reading a book about dogs at the moment, which is kind of boring for that reason.
As to my impression of her book... I agree with you, it was quite dry and missed the rich, emotional lives that horses exist in. Having said that, I am quite thrilled by the sheer volume of information that is available on the internet now on horses - none of this was possible 10 years ago. Your work is still really important, please keep writing and documenting your herd, for all the world to see.
Hi Lynne,
Perhaps Dr. McDonnel should do an other book and invite other faculties (neurology, example Templin Grandin)that did not exist when ethology studies of horses started back then, and see what the interaction of more than one point of view would bring.
I like better documentaries and Michael had purchased Robert Vavra's "Such is the real nature of horses" which has an intro with renowned Jane Goodall and these footage are very impressive.(and emotional because there is alot of music drama)
I hope Janet and Leslie apart taking pictures of your daily life with the herd,(your photo with the vintage fish basket is very nice) are taking video footage too... perhaps you are already working on a documentary yourself? Would be nice for you to produce maybe a serie that David Suzuki could put here at CBC for our Canadians?
Janet wrote:
"I am quite thrilled by the sheer volume of information that is available on the internet now on horses - none of this was possible 10 years ago. Your work is still really important, please keep writing and documenting your herd, for all the world to see."
I think the internet is an excellent source for accessing both antiquated texts and new research, within those sources that provide these services for free. Being of limited financial resources, those information repositories that desire memberships and "pay per view" services of their digital files are out of reach for me. I appreciate all the varying viewpoints one can find through internet sources as well, which help give a broader perspective of whatever one is researching.
I will, for sure, keep writing about the goings on here at Ravenseyrie, which isn't work at all, but a marvelous way of life!
A belated "thanks" for your comments, Janet.
Monica wrote:
"I like better documentaries and Michael had purchased Robert Vavra's "Such is the real nature of horses" which has an intro with renowned Jane Goodall and these footage are very impressive.(and emotional because there is alot of music drama)"
I, too, like these types of documentations much more than the more clinical ethologies.
"I hope Janet and Leslie apart taking pictures of your daily life with the herd,(your photo with the vintage fish basket is very nice) are taking video footage too... perhaps you are already working on a documentary yourself? Would be nice for you to produce maybe a serie that David Suzuki could put here at CBC for our Canadians?"
Janet and Leslie live in southern Ontario and have very busy lives. It was a very exceptional situation to have Leslie come up to Manitoulin to photograph the horses, one that neither she or her equally talented photographer sister, Janet, will find it easy to do again, though I know that they would like to.
There was a time (a year ago or so) when Stormy May thought she might like to film a documentary about Ravenseyrie and the Sorraia and Sorraia Mustang horses, but I do believe she is using her resources and talent for a different documentary to follow up her wonderful "Path of the Horse" film.
For my part, while in some ways the exposure of a documentary film would be good for the horses, I am not so sure it would be good for Kevin and I, who are very private people and really value our rustic way of life here.
Sharing the world of the horses through the blog format suits us well for now. Not to say that if David Suzuki came a knocking, we wouldn't at least discuss possibilities. ;-)
Hi Lynne,
"For my part, while in some ways the exposure of a documentary film would be good for the horses, I am not so sure it would be good for Kevin and I, who are very private people and really value our rustic way of life here."
Same here. Our experience with Michael being promoted as NHE Representative cause us alot of problem. He has written about it in his book. It is not easy to balance promoting the horses interest and our private life.
And Stormy will be taking footage of Michael next weekend at the NHE Seminar here in Quebec.
Perhaps you will be able to see him through her next documentary !
Thanks Lynne for your good comments.
Monica wrote:
"And Stormy will be taking footage of Michael next weekend at the NHE Seminar here in Quebec.
Perhaps you will be able to see him through her next documentary !"
It will be terrific for Stormy to include the NHE Seminar (and Michael) in her next documentary. Many people are eagerly looking forward to the next film.
All the best for the seminar!
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