I recently spent a beautiful afternoon in the pasture interviewing Emma about her horses, Freedom and Emmy.  It was the first time we had tried to record a formal interview in that open environment and that would include the horses in the footage.

I came all prepared with my questions, my checklists, and what seemed like tons of gear that had to be hauled from the car through the extensive stables, across the paddock, and up a hill in the pasture where the horses like to graze.  My friend and photographer, Debbie McArthur, was with Emma and me and graciously took some very nice photos of our adventure.

Below are some of those photos.  I will be posting a video clip of our experience as soon as I can get it completed.  In the clip you will see that Emma’s horses have a mind of their own

As some of you may know I have been enrolled in Goddard College’s Individualized BA program for the last three years.  My work thus far has been completely centered around my life with the horses, using this interest as a platform to approach culture, history, science, communication, spirituality, and human behavior.  I have now embarked on my senior year, which in the Goddard curriculum centers around a specific “senior project”. 

For this senior project I have decided to focus on a thesis topic;  Why are we as humans in this present time facing a way of life which is often disconnected from our authentic selves and from nature?  What are the components of this problem and how can horses lead us to a more integrated life?  

The parts of this exploration, other then writing and reading, will be a photography book (yes, I’m going to try and struggle through photography) with photos of my horses accompanied by 1 to 5 page essays dealing with the topics of history, equine anatomy, mythology, and other aspects of the human horse relationship.  My hope with this book is to create something that makes my work over the last two (soon to be three) years accessible to the reader.  No one is going to sit down and read a 100 page thesis, right?  So lets combine the power of imagery with the written word and see if we can inspire readers to think.

The other component of my senior project, with the hope that we can reach viewers in a gentle, inspiring, and hopefully thought provoking way, is the documentary film at who’s blog you are now reading this post.

Horses are powerful, both in their physical manifestations and as symbols. I invite you to continue on this path with me to see how deeply we can dive into the transformative magic of the horse.

Hello Blog Readers!

It has been a long time sense my last entry and Joan did a nice job of updating you to our latest projects on her last post.  

I am currently in Denmark attending a compact schooling course with horse specialist, and as I’m learning, life specialist, Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling (http://www.hempfling.com/).  I arrived here on the 5th of September and will continue here for a three week period until the 28th of Sept.  

My fellow students and I (about 25, all women except for one) just finished out first section of the course titled “Spiritual Awareness” and will continue in the next weeks to cover “Body Awareness,” “The Art of Lunging,” and “The Art of Riding.”  

Klaus is an extremely gifted story teller, weaving the tales of mythology, history, and spiritual essence of our ancestors into a compelling explanation for “the way things are.”  He deals with why we struggle with horses, with our daily lives, and with our own goals and development.  He teaches about “being,” coming back to nature, and cultivating an authentic self through honesty and the pursuit of knowledge.  This course already has been, and I am confident will continue to be, a life altering experience.

I will be writing another work packet for Goddard College (the first of my now senior semester) on this course experience and will be sure to post it when it is finished so that you the readers can get a better sense of where this journey is taking my horses and I.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment and ask questions!

Here is a YouTube clip of portions of the most recent interview I conducted with Emma.

Emma on YouTube

A lot has happened since our last post here. For starters, Emma bought another horse in the early Spring. Her name is Emmy.  

Great Big Teddy Bear!

She is a great BIG lovable sweetheart. Emmy and Freedom have become best of friends. I’ll let Emma tell you all about Emmy and her personality in one of her posts.

Emma moved Emmy, Freedom, and herself to a new home late this Spring in Southern Anne Arundel County. The horses have more room to play and Emma is living there on the farm with them so she can be with them all the time. They are all loving this beautiful new location. 

After a very wet Spring, a very hot Summer, and numerous distractions, we are back to doing some actual filming for “Freedom’s Choice”. A couple of weeks ago we taped a “formal” interview with Emma that will serve in the storyline of “Freedom’s Choice”. Here are a few pictures taken while we were setting up.

Camera, Lights, Sound!!

 

Makeup!

 

 

 

Beautiful Emmma

A Natural!