Meditations on Equestrian Art

The Project:

Horses from many walks of life, 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.

Before Riding…

This week I thought I would talk you through a brief photo essay of some of the things Ari and I are doing to get ready for riding.

The past few weeks we have developed Ari’s comfort in being leaned on. He knows how to brace his feet and find his balance accommodating me shifting around him and putting my full weight up against his.

We have spent many hours going places together with Ari leading the way. This is important because once I am sitting on his back I will always be following his lead.

We practice having my arms go up in the air so I am taller than normal, this is a minor change in comparison to sitting up on Ari’s back, but we have to start with small steps toward the end goal.

As you can see Ari is not sure he approves of me being taller so close to him, so I do it only for a moment and then retreat to being a normal height.

When Ari has made the most change toward better feeling that I think is possible for the moment, I offer him my hand, he touches in, and that is our agreement to change the conversation to something easier.

Having me down low was a challenge for Ari at the beginning of our relationship. Now he finds it much preferred in comparison to the other option, me being taller than usual.

Hugging Ari is a funny task that is important before riding because he has never experienced being squeezed by human limbs before.

There will be times riding when I need to catch my balance and grab ahold of him for a moment with my legs or my arms.

We need to make sure this is comfortable for him in relaxed situations before I ever try to do it in any situation with higher energy.

Our next task to get comfortable with is jumping.

After I sit on Ari, I will have to jump off of him at some point.

As you can see, Ari is less than pleased with the jumping, so we keep it far enough away from him to be tolerable for now.

With a little support from Ocassio and I over time, Ari will adapt and learn that jumping is amusing and not bothersome at all.

Our final task this week is about buckets, and my ability to stand on them, as I will need to do to climb on for a ride.

At this point in time, I practice far away from Ari.

And often I practice when I am downhill from him so I am not too tall at first.

As you can see, at this point in time, Ari likes the part best when he sees me stepping off the bucket to become a normal height again.

All of these tasks are approached with the best feel and timing I can manage. Ari is free to express how he feels about each action I take and the duration of harmony we share between actions. Ari’s feedback to me is my continuing education so I am perpetually learning to do this better.

The tasks are fun, but the way we feel together while we do them is so much more important.

I have posted a video on Patreon so you can see our practice of these things in action. If you are curious about this and ongoing stages of the process, I greatly appreciate your patronage joining the group and I will continue to share update videos every week.

https://www.patreon.com/tamingwild

Here is to horses teaching us well! Here is to us humans learning to listen better every day to become the best partners possible through all the fun tasks we might think up.

Hooves and Heartbeats,

Elsa

TamingWild.com