Please click on the image to get the full picture.
A.i.s. rider's chairs from the series pas roccoco main rigolo, 2008. The tables by now have legs. I am working on the surfaces.
Free horses in steady pace cover long distances without effort. They rear, jump forward, turn on the spot or draw large circles. They withdraw aback. Each movement is supported by a particular posture. Can the rider sit on a wild horse? Does it offer him a place?
Mounted horses advance freely. The rider on the other hand sits still. His weight collects in one point. Both rely exclusively and directly on the force of life. The horse impersonates the rider's postures and submits its movements to his will. It bestows itself into his hands. In perfect balance it runs and turns, jumps or rears. Willingly moving fast or slow, left or right, up or down. The rider rests in place.
There is something about curved lines. In the wild the horse walks on straight lines. It is prepared on curved lines for riding. A physical change occurs while the inner hind leg supports the body's mass over longer periods of time. Resultant the horse transfers from wild to civil. And then the wise rider helps himself to what one may want to call retro-active effects.
Movements express emotion. Likewise particular motions are linked to appointed feelings. Legs wide apart claim the ground. Arms raised express surrender. Joined palms speak of turning inwards. The soldiers' march conveys a message of military strength. Dance is the epiphany of jollity. Singing may praise God.
The horse lowers head and neck to rest and graze. Movements of tongue and jaw convey a message of well-being. The dropped neck in locomotion expresses fatigue or resignation. The croup's closing indicates stand-by and willing cooperation. The raised head signals attention. Composure speaks of readiness to perform.
The rider from his core tunes into the signals of the horse's core. Indicating posture and movements he recreates emotion. Out of his mouth man speaks. The horse's mouth tells as well, expressing emotions such as comfort, frustration, fear or aggression. Eyes, head and the neck's first vertebra in the human move independent of the spine. In the horse they produce a lateral release of neck and backbone, which in German equestrian language is called Laengsbiegung. It prepares the horse for what amounts to no less than a German rider's sacred concept: Losgelassenheit. Unfortunately the English language provides no words for either term. The latter in a leap of imagination I above state as, "... rely exclusively and directly on the force of life ...". The rider facilitates the processes of the occipital bone in the equine poll to fine tune the horse's artistry.
Perception prepares for action. An example, the horse - head raised, ears pointed - in a counted walk slowly and interrogatory advances towards the stranger. Ears and eyes are focused. Second neck vertebra and sacrum via long ligament are in touch. The horse is geared for instant reaction. The rider helps himself to this very counted walk to prepare the mounted horse for action. He in other words not only tunes into the horse's core. To train he as well calls on motions, which activate the emotions and locomotions associated with them.
