Spirit

While I've been here, I've been trying to understand what sparked my interest in horses. I actually don't know the point it began, but I can name a few influences. I grew up in a town, and had little interaction with horses, but when I was around thirteen years old my family got a computer. On this computer was a film called "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron". This was one of the few films we had at home, so consequently I watched it a lot. I loved the film, and at one point I knew almost all the spoken words. It is a film about a wild mustang stallion who is captured by different humans (the cavalry and a Native American), and his struggle to be free. He is named 'Spirit Who Could Not Be Broken' by the Native American.

Around that same time I read Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. Thus the first few influential experiences with horses, even though they were fictional, were from the horse's point of view, and treated the horse as a thinking and valuable being. The combination of a free spirit and being bound in a herd is what has fascinated me when it comes to the horse. Also, I have always thought horses are beautiful animals, and as I enjoy art, I have seen them a lot in paintings. They are majestic animals, and there is power in a horse that attracts people.

From those early fictional experiences with horses, slowly my interest in horses grew. I sought out books and comics about horses (which were readily available and targeted at my age group and younger). I found books about horses in their wild state and became interested in natural horsemanship as introduced by Monty Roberts and Pat Parelli. I read books about this and became really interested in trying some of these methods out on a horse, but I didn't have access to a horse.

When I was 19, I decided to go to what in Norwegian is called folkehøgskole to learn natural horsemanship. This is a type of gap year school where you can go to learn something or spend time doing something you like. You could do anything from drama to skiing, natural horsemanship or gardening. I was lucky and found a school with a very good horse programme with few people and many horses. I learnt a lot about horses, and I was introduced to Stina and the Carolyn Resnick method by one of my fellow students.

That has led me to where I am today. Here, in this herd, there is a mare called Spirit. She is very sensitive and afraid of humans, and while I am here, she is one of my 'project' horses. That means I am spending time with her and getting lessons from Stina with her. I love it, but it is also a challenge for me, because when I am around horses that are afraid of me, I easily get afraid too. But she is a really sweet horse, and it is good to see that  she functions very well in the herd. She is second in command, and is well respected by the younger mares. Jack, the only male in the herd, and Spirit have a close relationship. Whenever Darling, the leader, is not around, I often see Jack and Spirit hanging out together.

It is so nice to be able to see some of the friendly gestures of the horses, not only notice the bigger pecking order squabbles. I feel like I understand much more of how the herd functions and the language of the horses, just since I came here. This has come from a lot of observation when spending time with the horses in the first Waterhole Ritual, sharing territory. The horses give me more than I had ever expected. I understand the concept of real leadership - a leader who leads by example that you want to follow - much better now. The concept of teamwork has also become clearer to me, and I am constantly learning. I am very thankful for the journey I have had since those early introductions to horses. To think that a book and a film can have that big an impact on the direction my life has taken!

Books read: 20
Pages read: 5513

Pruning the fence posts

A while back, the banana field next to the horses' pasture was fenced in so that the horses could eat in there. We were told that as a part of our daily tasks, we were to check the fence every day to make sure that nothing grew on it or was otherwise hindering the electricity flow. So we started doing that. After a couple of days, we saw that the fence posts had started sprouting little green leaves. The logical thing to us was to remove them.

But apparently that wasn't the right thing to do. Stina explained that we had to leave at least some of the leaves to grow, or else the post would die. And then it would rot and fall down. It was also very important that the posts were put in the ground the right way up, or else they would not sprout. As I have said before: everything grows here. You can cut down a tree, cut it into 20 pieces, and lay the pieces on the ground, and after a week or two they would start sprouting, and you would have the beginnings of 20 clones of the chopped-down tree.

I have actually seen this happen (although not of that magnitude). The other day I passed the chunks still left from cutting up a big tree in front of the academy, and a couple of them were sprouting new tiny leaves. Big chunks of tree-trunk, sprouting just because they could! Wow. I love how the plant life here is always multiplying and so very alive. At home, in Norway, if a tree was cut down and left lying on the ground, I would be pretty surprised if it started sprouting leaves and making new roots for itself.

So instead of cutting off all the green sprouts on the fence posts, we now just prune them so that they don't interfere with the fence wire. So now, the fence posts look like small trees. Eventually, they might end up like the huge trees I saw once when I went to New Zealand. Really tall (and thick) poplar trees that are over 100 year old, which grew from fence posts in the Buried Village in the Rotorua area. Let's hope they don't, at least not in the foreseeable future. The more likely thing to happen, though, is that the fence posts will grow and bring the fence higher up. Then there would be a constant need to adjust the height of the fence.

I am once again in awe of nature. How marvellous! It's almost like magic: just break a part of the plant off and stick it in the ground the right way up, and you have a new plant! Just like that! If only it was that simple in every climate. But then, fast-growing things make for more things to keep cutting back from taking over. Good things never come without at least one disadvantage. But even so, nature is amazing and really awesome!

Books read: 19
Pages read: 5339

Beside the fire

I sit beside the fire and think 

of all that I have seen, 

of meadow-flowers and butterflies 

in summers that have been; 

Of yellow leaves and gossamer 

in autumns that there were, 

with morning mist and silver sun 

and wind upon my hair. 

I sit beside the fire and think 

of how the world will be 

when winter comes without a spring 

that I shall ever see. 

For still there are so many things 

that I have never seen: 

in every wood in every spring 

there is a different green. 

I sit beside the fire and think 

of people long ago, 

and people who will see a world 

that I shall never know. 

But all the while I sit and think 

of times there were before, 

I listen for returning feet 

and voices at the door. 

This is a quote from The Fellowship of the Ring (the first part of The Lord of the Rings) by J.R.R. Tolkien (found on p. 271-272). It's a song that is sung by a character in the book. When I read it, it really moved me. It was a strange feeling, because now I am not remembering - I am experiencing things that I will remember later. It made me think about how I have to remember to enjoy my stay here to the full, so that the memories that I revisit in the dark winter (beside the fire) will be bright and beautiful.

Books read: 19

Pages read: 5295

Sunsets

Today, I present to you some pictures I have taken of recent sunsets here. All, except one, are taken from the horses' pasture. It is amazing how the same thing happening (the earth rotating so that the sun is out of sight) can be different every time. And so beautiful!

Now for a summary of this week: I have had a quiet week (or rather, three days), with only 6 people in total at the academy. My legs are really polka-dotted again after having read The Fellowship of the Ring outside wearing shorts for three hours. Today, after returning from our third jog this week, Kristina and I discovered that the water was back, after having been gone since yesterday afternoon. Yay!

Books read: 19
Pages read: 5131

PS: It is quite normal to see sail boats passing by here, like in the third picture. When I see them, I think of how wonderful it would be to be sailing here, and I remember how it was when I went sailing. It is very nice to have those kinds of thought breaks when we are working in the horses' pasture, for example.

30. Ping-pong

In the common room of the academy, there is, in addition to tables, chairs, and sitting groups, also a ping-pong (or if you prefer to be specific, table tennis) table. This ping-pong table is a gathering point in our free time, and a very fun game is played on it.

The game we play here is for as many people that want to join (or however many rackets are available...and we have a lot of them). You then divide into two groups of roughly the same size, who line up at each end of the table. The first person in one of the lines starts by serving. Each person then hits the ball once, and then moves around the table in the anti-clockwise direction. If you fail, that is, either you don't return the ball over the net, or you let it bounce more than one time on you side, or the ball you hit doesn't bounce on the table at all, you loose one of your two lives. When you loose both your lives, you are out of the game.

The game is played this way until there are only two people left, who then play a match which goes to two points (or three, if it's initially a draw). It's a lot of fun to play, even though I often end up going out of the game at an early stage. It's also fun to watch, and you can always hear it being played from a long way away, from all the hoots of laughter, shrieks, and shouts coming from the direction of the common room. Today, after dinner, I played this game with two other people. There's a lot of running to do when there are only three people playing this game (and no lives to lose). I had to return the ball the person behind me hit, so it's about being both fast and accurate. It was a lot of fun, and also really tiring. Sweat was running down my face when we finished.

If you ever have the chance to play this game, I highly recommend it. It is a very including game if you only have one ping-pong table, but lots of rackets. So this was today's dosage of out-of-breath fun.

This is the last day of BEDA, in case you hadn't noticed. I am looking forward to getting back to my usual blogging schedule, even though this month has been a good experience. I have become better at writing, and also at noticing the small and interesting things in my everyday life here. I am now completely into my routines here, and this has really become my home. I am looking forward to sharing the next couple of months I spend here with you.

Books read: 18

Pages read: 4886

PS: For a really catchy funny song titled "Ching chong!", click here. I thought it would fit with today's post because it sounds like the title...and I often have it on repeat in my head unwillingly.