September 28, 2010

It's Tuesday and I start the journey away from this home tomorrow. I haven't written about it here yet but after the NHE seminar in Canada I'll be attending the annual conference for the European Association for Horse Assisted Education (EAHAE) in Windsor England October 8-10, 2010. I have been feeling very strongly the message that I will be carrying with me to the lands of Canada and England. It's not only a message from the horses but from everyone who is ready to find peace.

I walked down to the pasture today in what probably will prove to be the last heat wave of the season. It was a little before noon and the temperatures were already over 90 degrees Farenheit (32 Celcius for those of you I'll be visiting soon). I thought the horses might appreciate getting hosed off since they don't have access to a pond or river to help stay cool and chase away the bugs.

As I was hosing the horses I started to take the following videos.

At annual conferences people present their research. I will be attending the conference in England because the Path of the Horse will be showing, not as a speaker, but I was thinking about what I would have to present at the conference.

Well, here's the answer. Watch the videos and you'll see some minutes of what I did today with the horses. Sofi, the pinto pony has been scared about having water sprayed on her. When I used to work with her with a halter, I would just tie her and force her to stand for it, but now that we don't work with a halter or any sort of restraint I saw an opportunity to work with her in the way that I wish I would have worked with her from the very beginning. Read more of her story here.

More of Patrik enjoying the water.

Sundance joining in...

When the horses seemed to have enough of the water, Patrik led the others over to a good rolling spot. I figured I'd leave and get my packing started but I chose to go through the gate at the other end of the field. Here's what happened.

Here is a video I present as a question. My horses yawn frequently, and lick and chew. I've heard peoples' theories about yawning being a sign that a horse is content, stressed, "processing", "releasing". I took this video because I saw Sofi yawning when I was scratching her (a regular occurrence). In the video you'll see when she seems to have had enough and move on, and then Sundance comes up for some scratches. I didn't get the yawning response from Sundance here, partly I think because when I'm trying to video and get into the horse space at the same time, I don't do either particularly well. They are equally likely to start yawning when they don't seem to understand something I'm trying to communicate.

This last video is focused on a new ball I got to use with the horses. They've had it in their pasture about 5 times now. Patrik quickly learned to pick it up and the others still aren't quite sure what to do with it. This video seems like a good representation of how I start playing with and introducing new things to the horses. Of course since I'm videoing I don't get as into it as I would without the camera in hand.

This is the last blog post I'm going to enter here until after I get back from the trip. I will be keeping a regular account of the trip on a new blog for people who have become sponsors. Any donated amount will help me fund this part of the journey and get you a link to the new sponsors blog so you can follow along. Click here to donate and get a link to the sponsor's blog.

We vote with our dollars every day. The foods we purchase, the entertainment we pay for, the learning we spend money on, and the animals we support all reflect our priorities. If you would like to vote with your dollars towards helping spread the Path of the Horse as I am walking it, this is the perfect opportunity.

Thanks for joining me and the horses in the pasture,
Stormy

P.S. HorseTalk TV will be featuring a show with Alexander Nevzorov and myself. Click here to see a teaser.

Horse Talk TV episode 4 airs across Australia this Wed 29th Sept at 7pm Eastern Australia time and features a segment on Stormy May & Alexander Nevzorov. You can watch the show live streamed on broadband on www.tvs.org.au on Wed 7pm, with repeats on Fri. 12.30pm, Sat 10am.