The Elementals of Autumn

The 2010 fillies head off to better grazing on a different sector of the landscape.
(front to back: Levada, Tocara and Pinoteia)

My delay in typing up entries to the Journal of Ravenseyrie chronicling my week in Portugal has been hampered by two things...

A view of Gore Bay from the vantage point of the East Bluff during the autumn
(photo: Kevin Droski)

Long time readers may recall that I have a studio and art gallery down on the Gore Bay waterfront, which typically I keep open all year round.

The space I lease for my business is in a marvelous, yet derelict structure that has come to be known as the "Wharf Building".

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Gore Bay Heritage Museum curator, Nicole Weppler, grant monies were gathered to save the building (owned by the town of Gore Bay) from further ruin and now the renovation work has begun! This means, however, that the all of Ravenseyrie Studio and Art Gallery had to be carefully packed and stored in a safe location for the five months that phase one of the renovations will take.

A view into the working studio section, where author Lynne Gerard creates arty things
(Photo: Angie Timan)

A short view into the gallery

I will move back in next spring, along with more creative studios and businesses. So officially, I am on a sabbatical and can spend all day, every day up on the bluff where we live among the horses of the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve.

Levada (Altamiro x Zorita) in October, looking oh-so prehistoric!

After I returned from Portugal, there were many preparations for the packing up of the studio which rather upset the normal routine of things and also, at home there has been the press of finalizing as much as one can around the house and land to be ready for winter. These two situations made for very little time to tap away at a computer, and even now, I do so with the pull of decent weather calling me outside.

So, until the next day of inclement weather, I will continue to put off writing about the rest of my Portuguese trip...but trust, me...what further experiences I wish to share from that interesting week are worth waiting for!

As a reward for dedicated readers, however, I could not resist taking a little time from the busy-ness of winterizing to share some of the stunningly beautiful scenes of autumn I have photographed here at the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve.

Altamiro, the Sorraia stallion who knows precisely how marvelous and special he is!

Please enjoy the array of images and forgive me for the delay in reporting on my Portuguese adventure, won't you?

Tobacco poses for the perfect October beach scene, with the North Channel of Lake Huron uncharacteristically as still as glass.



Zorita nurses Legado, with a bit of autumn colour still present in the background trees.


Altamiro posing with impeccable nobleness while his 2011 foals romp and play up near the bluff's edge.

Altavida

Esperanda

Legado

Another hike to the beach on a different day reveals the more typical character of the North Channel in autumn.



How splendidly the shades of grulla mingle with the landscape, especially in autumn!

The grulla colour has the marvelous ability to appear as grasses, darkly shadows, tree bark, dried herbs, distant shrubs, soil, etc....any elemental that the horses are surrounded by!

Destemido!

This past Monday I was finally able to connect with the three year old stud colt, Interessado while he was dozing--this allowed me to completely liberate his mane, tail and forelock from the copious wads of burrs that he had been carrying around for several weeks.
I did not photograph him until Tuesday, but still his tresses flowed freely. But this morning, the dark handsome fellow had managed to adorn himself with no small amount of Hound's Tongue burrs.
It is a good thing I like (truly, I do!) spending time deburring the horses and mules, because this particular task is one that will continue to need my attention all throughout the wintertime. ( I should note, here, that on Friday--unless the weather turns foul--Interessado and his full brother, Silvestre have a date with the veterinarian. We should have had them gelded before now...but it is not something I necessarily wanted to do, but find we must do, out of necessity...)



Mules look pretty lovely in the autumn, too! And how great it is to see Jerry's tail blowing in the wind instead of hanging heavily bound by burrs.


Doll yawns in the unseasonably warm morning sunshine...makes you want to take a nap, doesn't it?

I found this morning's light irresistible and stopped house work to go out and photograph the horses. Legado found me and my camera irresistible so he came over to say hello.
Unfortunately, our timing of this little visit didn't suit Altamiro at all, who was ready to take his family band to the northwest sector. Needing only a few steps in our direction with a lowered head and glaring expression, Altamiro impressed upon his son that it was time to leave.
and so off they go...
and so must I!

Confucius instructed:
First, set your HeartMind on the One.
Then listen,
not with your ear,
not even with your HeartMind.
Listen with your Qi,
the very essence of your ultimate self.
The ear can only hear.
The HeartMind is typically
entangled in evaluation.
The Qi is completely open and receptive
to every subtle level of being.
--Zhuang Zi, Inner Chapters, Fourth Century B.C.E.

There is SO much magic in these elementals of autumn...I hope you felt yourself enraptured for a little while as you mingled with them vicariously through the Journal of Ravenseyrie!

Sorraia Mustangs on the Ravenseyrie Beach

When gelded, Interessado will be able to continue to have free roam of all of Ravenseyrie and mingle with the other horses both old and young, as he is doing here with Fada's colt, Destemido.

Instead of substituting a new form of stress, as an "enforcer", we should take on the role of "decider," not the one who imposes his will and dominates the horse. --Frédéric Pignon

(from the book Gallop to Freedom, by Delgado, Pignon and Walser)

From time to time there comes to me from those individuals who read the Journal of Ravenseyrie a question or comment that I am prompted to respond to not in the follow-up comments section, but within a new journal entry. I have mentioned in one or two recent entries that after careful contemplation, Kevin and I had decided we would soon be gelding our two young colts, Interessado (Purebred Sorraia x Kiger Mustang) and Silvestre (Purebred Sorraia x Kiger Mustang). Most likely this declaration caused a indignant gasp from some who are against the castration of stallions while simultaneously receiving a derisive exclamation of "Well it's about time." from others.



One long time reader, June, typed out an earnest query, and here, among the many lovely photos of our Sorraia Mustang youngsters (of mixed ages who have been expelled from the family band by their sire, Altamiro) enjoying the cooling breezes coming off Lake Huron's North Channel, I have decided to provide her an equally earnest answer.


June inquired: "I have a question for you - what are your feelings about gelding? I ask this not to challenge you, but because the idea makes me feel a bit off, and I'm sure you're a somewhat ambivalent too. Maybe you have some reassuring thoughts for me?!"

Lovely Fada

The castration of horses has a history extending back to the days when gold-bedecked Scythian horseman (highly skillful and wickedly ferocious) roamed the vast Pontic-Caspian steppe, is even in modern times a "simple, routine" procedure--yet still is not without potential risk to horses, and is a distinct act of governance on the part of the human. One wonders, then how I would even consider imposing such a life-altering operation on our young stallions?



Since we have been unable to link up with the right type of situation that would provide meaningful, full lives away from Ravenseyrie for these colts, and we cannot support more than one free range breeding herd, the only options we see are to break up their open acerage with "stallion proof" fencing and segregate the colts and fillies from each other and the family band, or to sterilize the colts so they can continue to roam virtually free.

A coating of lakeshore mud helps Interessado cope with biting insects

Both Kevin and I know our horses very well...we know what they most desire on a day to day basis--and this is the freedom to run in wide open spaces as part of the extended family. The desire to procreate is seasonal and hormonal driven and of secondary interest to an overall sense of belonging to a free range group with their mental and physical needs mostly provided autonomously with a little support from us from time to time. We feel 100% confident that given a choice between remaining biologically intact, yet segregated into more confined region of the landscape or being denied reproductive rights, but allowed to continue to experience rich, full living in the big wide open with the opportunity to mingle with the other equine inhabitants, both Interessado and Silvestre would prefer the latter.


It is worth noting that even in a truly wild situation with no fences containing them, not all stallions will have opportunity to breed mares, some will form bachelor bands, some live solitary lives and some are accepted as non-breeding assistants to a family band.



Of the few options available for purposefully rendering male horses infertile, we have determined castration is the most appropriate for our semi-wild living conditions here at Ravenseyrie. Once gelded, Interessado and Silvestre will be taken off the "for sale" list and can live out their lives here with us.



Segregating stallions, provided they have sufficient room to live and acceptable companionship is not a bad thing...and should any of Altamiro's sons move on to other lives where they are not kept in the company of mares, I am confident they would adapt quite nicely with the right type of human support and affection. However, to extract them from their former free and glorious interactive life in the big wide open landscape Ravenseyrie presently provides them, and place them inside a formidable barrier that keeps them from the very things they love, while their former world continues to be visible to them, is akin to creating a jail in a palace where the princes can see all that was once theirs but not participate in it.


So, with Frédéric Pignon's words in mind, we will not become the "enforcer" of a truncated lifestyle which would be daily stressful for the unsold colts but rather serve a role as "decider" in what we feel has the best, holistic interests for the horses and the landscape.

Pinoteia in a pensive pose

We do not expect that there will be universal support for our determination to soon geld Interessado and Silvestre (and later Destemido) but readers will at the very least know the reasons we have come to this decision.

Thank you, June, for your question and the opportunity to explain how we came to this decision.

Destemido, the fearless one, son of Fada

The longer I live in the company of horses the more I feel my ability to communicate with other humans deepens and the more I appreciate the need for respect, not to judge too easily, to be tolerant, to have compassion and acceptance. This is the horse's gift to me. --Frédéric Pignon
(from the book Gallop to Freedom, by Delgado, Pignon and Walser)

Tocara and Levada enjoy a mutual grooming sessionZorita's 2010 filly, Levada