Around the world in 80 horses
In a small rural, wooden village in Romania, I met Dana. Dana was a bright chestnut mare, of about 15 hands. She was finely built, not far off a thoroughbred, but with a little more feather, a courser, ponyish face, and a tear in one ear. Dana was 11 years old and pulled a little cart about the village, helping to transport her owners wares to market. When she wasn't working, Dana was let loose to roam about the streets, like the other Romanian ponies, fenced in only by the high, forested mountains. A friend of ours had emigrated to Romania, and been given permission to ride Dana, if she would accept it, and so I was asked to give her her first ride under saddle. I say saddle, in fact I was given a beautiful hand woven blanket to ride upon. I wondered if this in itself was some sort of test, as the blanket was as useful for starting Dana as oil might be for handling an eel. I soon gave up on that and rode bareback, wondering, since I hadn't seen anyone riding at all, whether the blanket was something local horse-people managed with more dignity, and if so how, or simply a novel invention cunjoured up in honour of my ride and never before tested. Perhaps I was supposed to have brought my own girth and had committed the greatest faux pas in Romanian horsey history by getting on the blanket without tying it down in anyway. Anyhow, Dana took to riding pretty easily, though she wasn't so easily won over on the concept of steering, preferring to make her own way around the village as she normally would sans human luggage. When I dismounted and removed her bridle, I noticed what a beautiful piece of equipment it was. On each cheek piece were colourful tassels of material and many little bells; her owner told us that these keep evil spirits from upsetting the horses. I wondered whether the tassels acted like the blinkers that driving ponies wear in England, obstructing the ponies vision, so that shying sideways becomes less likely; partly because they don't see so much to shy at and partly because they wont go where they can't see, therefore keeping them straight and preventing the cart from being upturned.
Inspired by Dana, this Autumn, my partner Hannah and I took to the road again for seven months, looking to experience horsemanship techniques in India, Indonesia, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and South America. As a professional horse behaviourist, Intelligent Horsemanship's youngest Recommended Associate, Monty Robert's first female demo rider, I was fascinated in learning how horses are trained around the world, and hoping to help others develop their horsemanship as well as learn from local horse knowledge as I traveled. We planed to visit local and internationally renowned horse people, competitions and charities along the way, exploring the role that horse's play in people's lives and the ways in which horse behaviour is managed and interacted with. We weren't disappointed. Visit my blog rosiejoneshorses.wordpress.com to find out what we got up to.
