Time for another happy dance!

Die brühmte Laban-Tanzschule trainiert! Nach den modernsten Unterrichstmethoden werden die zukünftigen Tanzstars in der Labanschule ausgebildet. Unsere Bilder zeigen eine Morgenübung der berühmten Tanzschule Laban im Strandbad Wannsee bei Berlin. Im rythmischen Lauf bewegen sich die Tänzerinnen der Labanschule am Strande in Wannsee.

Time for another happy dance!

Dancing show, Budapest, 2013

Anyone who has been wounded — physically, emotionally, spiritually — and has been lucky enough to be around a horse, knows that horses are healers.

I’ve been spending a lot of time at the VA (the Department of Veterans Affairs) recently with my YIHB (for those new to the blog, that’s Yankee-Irish Horsewhispering Boyfriend).  He served in Vietnam and still bears the scars. I’m grateful that, at least so far, he hasn’t gotten one of the diseases that, finally, are considered presumptive for Agent Orange exposure, even though he spent time in a helicopter that sprayed it.

On one of our many recent visits to the VA, I picked up a copy of the After Action Report, produced by the Wounded Warrior Project.  One of the stories inside is entitled “Riding My Way Back.”

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Time for another happy dance!

Paulette Goddard and Fred Astaire in Second Chorus

In the French language, Fauve may be translated as “wild beast.”  It was the critic Louis Vauxcelles who first coined the term in reference to Henri Matisse and Andre Dérain, after seeing an exhibition of their work at the Salon d’Automne in Paris.

Characterized by a spontaneous expression, with bold and unmasked brushstrokes, and vivid colors direct from the tube, the works of the Fauve movement capture nature with emotion and joy.

So it is with this work of Wassily Kandinsky, entitled “Improvisation III.”  Is there a beast who inspires more emotion and joy than a horse?  I’m biased, I admit, but I don’t think so.

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Yes, it’s time for another happy dance!

Time for another happy dance!

Right now, there’s a very active thread in the dressage forum on the Chronicle of the Horse bulletin board.  Thirty-seven pages have been filled in the last six days by dozens of posters.

It’s all in response to a blog post by Catherine Haddad Staller, also on the Chronicle of the Horse, entitled “It’s Time To Train the Trainers.”  When I read it, I thought the message was clear:  riders are deficient in the basics, and that’s the fault of the trainers.

Clearly, however, the message was not clear.  Because my interpretation of Catherine’s words were only one interpretation, and in a minority.  Some people read the blog post and felt insulted.   Some people read it and felt that it insulted every adult amateur in America.  Some people felt it was high time that someone said something about the problem.  Others felt that Catherine should stop talking altogether.

There wasn’t a lot of middle ground.  Catherine has strong opinions and a somewhat brash delivery.  I find her blog amusing even when I disagree with her.  I have a feeling that we could sit down over coffee and hash it out and still smile at the end.  I understand the sense of humor that could lead her to write a sentence like this:

“These people are trying like hell to learn the most basic principles of riding and are struggling along at the pace of a rabid garden snail.”

Marching along as only a snail can, rabid or not.

One poster on the bb, who happens to be a vet, pointed out that since snails are mollusks, they don’t get rabies, but that’s beside the point.  The point is that it’s sometimes hard to hear what people have to say because of the way they say it.

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From the menu at the airport restaurant, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

What an incredible island.  And incredible mangoes.  We’ll never forget swimming with the horses, sitting on their bare backs in our bathing suits, their bodies submerged — and ours half-submerged — under the warm, clear turquoise water.  Thank you Eliza & Henry & Nikki & Blue & Dakota.