Meditations on Equestrian Art

The Project:

One Mustang directly off the range, One Trainer, Many Students, Communication through body language, Tools used only for safety, never to train

The Goal:

To discover how far Equestrian Art can be developed solely using body language.

Missing, Wanting, and Dreaming

“Dreams”

“Hold onto Dreams

For if dreams die

Life is like a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.”

Langston Hughes

This blog is recognition, that in all the joy and wonder and awe that making a movie contains, there is also a yearning and a hunger for the original work that created the movie.

This is a recognition that missing, wanting, and dreaming are vital and beautiful in their own way.

I am thrilled beyond belief that “Taming Wild” has made it into its butterfly stage of a movie. I am excited to share it in Seattle on the big screen this week. I am thrilled I get to stand on stage with mic in hand and play at questions and answers and theory, batting words back and forth with old friends and new.

This movie has a life of its own to revel in and watch with joy as it inspires people to follow their own dreams with their own horses.

I find myself also, in this long evolution of making a movie, missing the caterpillar stages of the project – the slow, long hours with Myrnah where we poured hours and hours into each other in an endeavor with an unknown outcome.

I find myself wanting more time with my fingers in fur and less time with them tapping away at a keyboard.

I find myself dreaming of what comes next, and yet more simply than that, I find myself dreaming of time lost in the flow of BEING with horses. That way of losing time is so very precious to me.

This week I had a rare day in which there were no lessons to teach, no travel calling me away, and the movie business needed a little less attention. The rain paused for a few hours and I grabbed hold of my chance to get back to the work I love.

Myrnah and I spent an hour moving together, practicing our skills and remembering what together felt like. I had a million things more I wanted to do and feel and remember with her; and then she told me it was naptime, lying down in the pea gravel, dropping her nose to the ground, shutting her eyes, and drifting off to dream land.

I could have pushed her back to work; I could have made action more important that stillness. However, that is not this work we do together. Dreaming is every bit as important as doing. Wanting is every bit as important as having. Missing is poignantly beautiful.

So I curled up next to Myrnah, feeling the heat of her body emanate through me against the chill of the day, and we both fell asleep.

There will be more days full of riding, galloping down trails, exploring new places, honing movements together and building the intensity of the things we can do.

Some days though, are just for curling up and dreaming about what might be ahead.

Enjoy your success.

Enjoy your dreaming.

Enjoy your missing of things you hold dear.

That chrysalis of longing is so very beautiful in its own way.

Hold it tenderly until it is ready to become the work and the evolution we long for.

Myrnah and I send you all our love in your dreaming.

Elsa Sinclair

EquineClarity.com

TamingWild.com