Perpetuate the Poetic – Carmel Rowley

Landseer – The Arab Tent

Horses are a magnet to those who love them. I know I’m drawn to them, my hand has a life of it’s own and reaches to stroke any horses fine soft neck. My hand tingles and I transported back in time.

Once, probably not that long ago, mankind relied on the horse to simply exist. Over the years I’ve learnt that if you give horses love, respect, and kindness, the horse will return those emotions tenfold. The horse whisperer Buck Brannaman, said a horse is a mirror to your soul. 

Many different facets of horse ownership set me on the path to write but the emotional involvement always fascinated me.  In my current novel I incorporate not only the long standing bond of friendship between women but also the horses ability to assist in healing an individual’s soul and mind.

So when I think about horses the spiritual is there so how could I not search out some of the marvellous poetry and the thought provoking words written about horses. I decided I must in my own little way ensure more and more people read some of these words. So today I’m blogging the poignant words written by W.G.Palgrave, in his book Central and Eastern Arabia. The words describe a unique breed of horse and when I think about it I used the beautiful words as a yardstick for our own breeding program.

Many will already know them but some may not have even read them. They take you back to the 1860’s when Palgrave gives a description of the horses owned by Prince Faisal ibn-Saud. Think about it for a moment, these horses were the type of Arabian that Abbas Pasha was able to source for his own breeding establishments. When you read the description you will probably feel like I do and wish you owned a time machine …

Carle Vernet Oriental Et Son Cheval Une Armée À Larrière

“…Never had I seen or imagined so lovely a collection. Their stature was indeed somewhat low; I do not think that any came fully up to fifteen hands; fourteen appeared to me about their average; but they were so exquisitely well shaped that want of greater size seemed hardly, if at all, a defect. Remarkably full in the haunches, with a shoulder of a slope so elegant as to make one in the words of an Arab poet, ‘go raving mad about it;’ a little, a very little saddle-backed, just the curve that indicates the springiness without any weakness; a head broad above, and tapering down to a nose fine enough to verify the phrase of ‘drinking from a pint pot’, did pint pots exist in Nejed; a most intelligent and yet singularly gently look, full eye, sharp thorn like little ear, legs fore and hind that seemed to be made of hammered iron, so clean and yet so well twisted with sinew; a neat round hoof, just the requisite for hard ground; the tail set on or rather thrown out at a perfect arch; coats smooth, shining and light; the mane long but not over grown nor heavy; and an air and step that seemed to say ‘Look at me, am I not pretty?’
Their appearance justified all reputation, all value, all poetry. The prevailing colour was chestnut or grey; a light bay, an iron colour, white, or black, were less common.
But if asked what are, after all, the specially distinctive points of the Nejdee horse, I should reply, the slope of the shoulder, the extreme cleanness of the shank, the full rounded haunch, though every other part too has a perfection and a harmony unwitnessed (at least by my eyes) anywhere else.”

W.G.Palgrave, ‘Central and Eastern Arabia’ (London 1865) Vol.2 pages 92-94

 The horse, with beauty unsurpassed, strength immeasurable and grace unlike any other, still remains humble enough to carry a man upon his back. ~ Amber Senti.

www.wellbeing.com.au/mind-spirit/spirituality/healing-power-horses.html

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