Make Prayers to the Wild Ones

Raven overseeing the
Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve

Make prayers to the Raven.
Raven that is,
Raven that was,
Raven that always will be.
Make prayers to the Raven.
Raven, bring us luck.
                                                                 from the Koyukon world view

I think often of the above words and find myself extending the prayer to the Sorraia horses and also including all the wild entities.  All the Wild Ones, they bring us luck...they are the promise of a viable future, I think - not electronic devices and space voyages.

Young Sorraia fillies on the Ravenseyrie beach
Summer 2011
Manitoulin Island

In my place in time it seems the world has gone wonky from a sort of collective schizophrenia among its human occupants.  Apocalyptic fevered nightmares outnumber utopian dreams - if one were to take the point of view of mass media as truth.

Does the Raven see that as truth?

Mythic Ravens at Ravenseyrie
East Bluff, Gore Bay
Manitoulin Island

Absolutely not!

Do the horses see the deluded workings of mankind as truth?  No, not any more than I do...but their lives are much more highly manipulated by humans than those of ravens and autonomy in appropriate habitats for most of them remains elusive and fragile.

Sorraias in the Vale de Zebro, Portugal
(Sadly, that Sorraia preserve no longer exists)

 
Though the Vale de Zebro Sorraia Refuge was dismantled a few years ago, some of the mares that lived there now live in northeastern Portugal, along with Tocara and Levada (two mares born here on Manitoulin Island at Ravenseyrie) as part of a Rewilding Europe initiative coordinated and overseen by Associação Transumância e Natureza.  The devastating drought and wildfire conditions that Portugal suffered in 2017 made unexpected extra hardships for the fledgling preservation project and hay had to be trucked in to augment the lack of forage.  But the Sorraias are resilient equines and spring rains are sure to generate ample grazing once again.  Things should go well for this new initiative if the more normal climate conditions for that region of Portugal return as the project is designed on a self- sustainable concept.

There was a recent news report on these horses, you can view the video and transcript here:

Rewilding Portugal:  Group reintroduces wild horses in Portugal

There has been great success for restoring wild nature to regions in key places in the world and it remains a fervent hope of mine that equines like the Sorraia soon can live in vast habitats where they are completely free of human manipulation and are allowed to manage their own affairs with only Nature as their guide.

Make Prayers to the Wild Ones!

Whole Body Thinking

Destemido and Sedutor

There is something about where I live that makes me feel less than human.
There is something about where I live that makes me not mind that feeling.
There is something about where I live that makes feeling less than human seem like more.

What I know about being "human" has been culture-shaped by the circumstances of my birth
And the "human superiority" world view of the people I have been raised among.
Where I live has taught me that what I know about being human has limited me as an experiential being.

Here in the wilderness, among the horses and the wind and the throbbing gnosis of the landscape,
What humans think of what it means to be human is of little interest.
So I set it aside, quite easily...

Altamiro

Fascination comes from sensing no separation between that which sees through my eyes
And that which sees through the eyes of Altamiro,
And that which sees through air breathed in and breathed out,
And that which sees through the sensations of cold air up warm nostrils.

Esperanda

Where I live one realizes thought comes with the entire body -
Whole body thinking.
Whole body thinking makes the brain subordinate.
Whole body taking in and giving out information,
Whole body making determinations of what action - or inaction is appropriate in the moment.

Where I live there is never a sense of boredom!
Where I live there is endless creativity,
Even (especially!) among the wandering grasses.

What a delight to be part of such poetry!

Fading and Ousado

"Other animals, in a constant and mostly unmediated relation with their sensory surroundings, think with the whole of their bodies.  A nuanced creativity is necessary to orient and forage in a world of ever-changing forces.  Equipped with proclivities and patterned behaviours genetically inherited from its ancestors, each wild creature must nonetheless adapt such propensities to the elemental particulars of the place and moment where it finds itself--from an unexpected absence of water in the usual watering hole, to a sudden abundance of its favourite food.  No matter how precise are the instructions tucked into its chromosomes, they can hardly have encoded, in advance, the exact topology of the present moment.  And hence a modicum of creative engagement in its immediate circumstance is simply unavoidable for any organism that moves (whether an elephant or an amoeba)."  --David Abram from BECOMING ANIMAL/An Earthly Cosmology

Ravenseyrie Mares in Autumn

Zorita (Portuguese Sorraia x Sulphur Mustang) and Esperanda (Portuguese Sorraia x Kiger Mustang)
 

This is the fourth autumn the Ravenseyrie mares will be experiencing down on the Twinravens range in Tehkummah, southeasterly Manitoulin Island.  Do they miss living up on the East Bluff of Gore Bay were Kevin and I and the bachelor band of Sorraias continue to dwell?  We certainly miss them and treasure those days when our conservation efforts included having an intact family band of wild horses showcasing their amazing equine culture day in and day out.  Unfortunately we learned 360 acres is not enough space (both physically and psychologically) for more than one wild living family band of equines.  Perhaps in the future there will come to be a large tract of land somewhere on the island or elsewhere in Canada where the males and females can live together in complete autonomy like what occurs on Sable Island.  For now, we must be content with knowing we continue to safeguard these horses in non-breeding groups.  

Pinoteia (Portuguese Sorraia x Spanish Mustang)

I continue to reserve my precious Mondays off from work to make the hour's drive down to Tehkummah and visit with Bella and Belina and Zorita and Fada and Pinoteia and Esperanda and Altavida and Rija.  It makes my heart sing to see them in such good form and in an environment that is able to naturally sustain them most of the year.  Being on a limited range, however, they do need hay supplemented to assist them in surviving the harsh winters Manitoulin Island experiences.  In early autumn local farmer, Larry Cress, drops off large round bales of dried summer in the front sector of their range, while Kevin and I stock the mares' forest shelter sector with large round bales we bring from home.  

Until the landscape is deeply locked in with snow, the mares prefer to dine upon what their range offers them naturally.  In the photo below, Rija purposefully selects dried thistle stalks...a delectable treat, or for medicinal purposes...she did not say which!  (see her eating these prickly plants in the YouTube video link below)    

Rija (Portuguese Sorraia x Spanish Mustang)

The mares coming up from the back range for treats and a visit.

Rija (Portuguese Sorraia x Spanish Mustang)

Rija tells Akina to skedaddle.

Our Majestic Mares!  How much a part of the landscape they are!

In this video, back at home, our purebred Portuguese Sorraia, Altamiro and one of his sons come up to say hello.  How different their lives are without the presence of the mares...I am sure they miss them being on the home range as much as I do.