farewell to the horse: a cultural history, by ulrich raulff
Against its nature, the terrified prey animal is turned into an incarnation of terror which drives the predator, man, to flee
The horse was born not in Troy, but in Alexandria: it is a phantom of the library
The connections forged between humans and horses nowadays are relationships based on love, communities of interest and sporting camaraderie.
the native language of equine history is Arabic.
Nobody would have noticed the waif-like boy who hung around the Paris horse market for days on end, in 1851 and the following year. Confident that he was unobserved, he scribbled away on the notepad he took everywhere with him, like a painter on his travels. Nobody recognized him as a young woman dressed as a man, pursuing her ambitious plan.
girls and horses are islands in the flowing river of time.
Somewhat like a precursor to cybernetics, only more direct: a neuro-navigation between interrelated natures. Two moving, loosely coupled systems, circumnavigating the lengthy route of thought, exchanging information directly via the short cut of touching nerves and tendons, thermal and metabolic systems. The act of riding means that command data is transferred in the form of physical data, in a direct exchange of sensory messages. Riding is the connection of two warm, breathing, pulsating bodies, mediated only by a saddle, a blanket or mere bare skin. Humans enter into similar informational connections when they dance together, wrestle or embrace.
