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A Two Day exploration of a very old paradigm
with Craig Stevens and Mary Anne Campbell at NSAE
Offered at home in Snohomish in 2011:
June 26th-27th - October 22-23 - December 10th and 11th
9 am until 5 pm - each day
What is it?
What is Mediterranean Horsemanship?
One of the definitions of "classical" is that the method has its roots in antiquity. This method of working with horses predates recorded history. It is rooted in the matriarchal cultures that surrounded the Mediterranean Sea, ancient cultures based around notions of working together, valuing harmony and drawing out the best in one another rather than placing ones values in dominance and conquest. Mediterranean Horsemanship is the name Giuseppe Majorano ("Pucci"), an Italian Horsemaster from Sicily, has chosen to refer to these very old methods of working the horse. In deference to Pucci, we use his term for our interpretation of this early, contemplative element of the classical method.
This is a very different paradigm than is common for the work with the horse, and in its gentle connection with the horse's mind it underlies the classical method at its best.
How do horses respond to it?
When a foal is born it expects to spend its life being a horse, playing, running and eating. For domestic horses, somewhere around the age of 3 or 4 things change. Suddenly primates get involved and things get weird. We expect the young horse to naturally step into a conversational mode with another species. There's nothing "natural" about it from the horse's point of view, and very predictably we run into resistances. While some modern practitioners will use techniques to desensitize the horse to being touched, Mediterranean Horsemanship instead works with the native sensibility of a natural horse, respecting it in the foal and recalling it in the adult horse. The horse learns, through quiet but intentional interaction, to trust the human to interact responsibly with his balance.
What do you do?
First, you slow down.
It's a hands on, relaxed, intuitive and yet educated interaction with the horse.
You work with the horse unrestrained to draw the animal
into the conversation with you as an interesting partner.
What do you accomplish?
The best thing about this work is that it eliminates resistance before it ever starts.
At first the handler just makes a connection, no goals, nothing but touch.
Then, slowly, the work builds willingness to move with the handler.
Then willingness to permit the handler to posture and "dance with" the horse.
All actions are undertaken very quietly and gently and in "horse time".
Why work with my horse this way?
This work should be done with young horses as a preparation before training begins.
But it is not only for the very young. Using it with an older, already trained horse can be enormously powerful in helping the horse establish trust in the rider. Anxious, angry, dull or resistant horses tend to defuse, get engaged with the human, and become more conscious and calm when this work is done with them.
Consider it horsey therapy...you're helping them reconnect to a time back before the trauma that made resistance seem like the right option.
For the rider, there are benefits that echo those of the horse. There is a calm, and a return to a time when being around horses was reward enough. We get to remember the simply joy of the way they smell, and the sound of their breathing. That slow pleasure infuses the riding, and the sense of harmony that results becomes the heart of the work in hand, and undersaddle. Removing the goals, we find we reach our goals much more efficiently and more effectively. It's a rather wonderful thing.
How do I register?
The cost for a single participant for the clinic at NSAE is $350. Professionals, NSAE students and additional family members receive a courtesy discount. School horses are provided.
At other sites, the cost is determined by the clinic organizer.
Contact Mary Anne via email or telephone, at 360-668-5242
to find out more, to enquire when the next clinic is going to be held.
OR...to host one yourself. |
