Monday, March 8, 2010

Dancing leaves and swaying trees

Today I participated in the second day of a meditation retreat so I was very slowed down when I took this video between some magnificent hail storms. I remember people joking about how watching dressage was like watching grass grow. I'm not sure that this video is any more exciting than that, but I know that there is some magic hidden in it. I decided to leave all 4 minutes of this video intact. I can imagine someone with a busy desk job taking the four minutes to watch this and experiencing a moment of the gift I was given by being part of this retreat.

The wind and leaves, trees and clouds have their own pace. Thankfully, there is something in a human being that remembers this pace and loves it.



In other news, I was asked today about how it is to be part of Alexander Nevzorov's school. (This school is a free online school at www.hauteecole.ru ) For me, it has provided a way of understanding Alexander and his wife Lydia and the work they do with horses right from my desktop. I found that once I was able to take in the impressions through the online discussions, school lessons, and following peoples' online diaries, I was then able to go out to my own horses and put the philosophy to the test of the horses. Of course it also helped that I was able to go and see Alexander and some of his real-life students in St. Petersburg, but the website was the perfect first step towards this.

I would recommend the website to anyone who is ready to follow this path to the point where they are willing to let go of bits, competitions and eventually riding. Even if a person is only curious, the website is sure to bring up some new and challenging views. The Nevzorovs' focus is not on the numbers of people in their school, it is on the quality of those people.

2 comments:

  1. I've taken your advice and signed up to register at Nevzorov's school, as I need all the help I can get. I find his website very pretentious, which is off-putting. Obviously when you visited, you must have liked the setup - what's up with the apparent pretentiousness?
    Thanks.

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  2. I have copies of Alexanders "books" or volumes and they are without a doubt AWESOME. I share the knowledge I learn with my clients and encourage them to purchase copies as well he is one of a kind over there in russia! I think he is a little arrogant he believes in darwinisim which to me anyway is very sad but his knowledge and scientific data is rock solid and his bond with his horses is fantastic. But he is Extremly strick about his students, alot of them get the boot, I chose to read for my self right now and maybe later more.

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