“If the horse has the impression that he can move when he is afraid, he will realize that he is safe.”
Contributing to that variety, each horse practices and
performs several disciplines in the show. Patof jumps, is ridden bareback and plays at liberty. Tunique also jumps and is a liberty horse. At other times he carries the high speed trick and Cossack riders. “We are not asking them to use the same muscles day after day until they are sore, or to do the same thing again and again until they become sick of the routine,” Ben explains. “We spend a lot of time with the horses and we slowly
bring them along so they can do everything, even if they are not the best at the discipline,” Ben continues. “When one day you ask him to jump, one day to run fast, one day to perform at liberty, one day to do high school movements, he stays open in his mind and body. When the horse comes out he thinks, ‘oh yes, I did that a few days ago.’ ” The variety of his work on stage also requires that the
horse carries himself in the different balances that are in keeping with the different disciplines. The training teaches a horse to be in control of his own balance. That balance is especially important with an innovative
addition to equestrian theatre—the hill. In Odysseo, the center of the stage is a beautiful forest setting with a striking hill rising out of the middle of the stage. On that hill, the horses run up and down at full speed with riders and acrobats over and under them. “The best security I can give the acrobats and riders
is that the horse knows his balance, and when he is confident in his balance, it is safe. It will not be safe if the rider holds the horse all the time. He needs to know exactly what he must do and he will do it on his own. I prefer to keep control of the balance with the horse,” Ben explains. The horses on the hill, like other Odysseo horses, have
an air of confidence and contentment when they’re on stage that seems incompatible with a setting in which they are surrounded by the very things that make most horses afraid or nervous—the lighting, the props, the moving spectators, the closed-in quarters of a tent. As a solution Ben returns to balance and self carriage, which allows the horse to move openly. He teaches his riders to trust that freedom. Instinctually the horse, prey for predators, runs from
danger. “If you hold a horse strongly with your hands and legs, he’s going to feel that he can’t move. And if he is afraid, he will become even more afraid if he feels trapped. If you fight with the horse to stay still, he will fight to get away because it is in his nature to fight to get away from what he fears.” Then Ben adds, “We teach him to manage
on his own, with a contact that is not pulling and legs that are not pushing all the time. If the horse has the impression that he can move when he is afraid, he will realize that he is safe.” Determined to show the horse in all his working
phases, the rhythm and choreography of Odysseo is ambitious. Each horse warms up during his first appearance on stage and then performs his main act. His return to the stage will be his cool down phase. “It’s a big puzzle. It’s easy with one horse, but hard with 70.” “Our show is another way of looking at horses. If people go home to do a bit of trick riding and play with their horses, I am happy,” Ben says. “If we open another way of being with horses, then hopefully people will be a bit nicer or gentler or more caring toward people around them.”
SEARCH AND RESCUED FROM THE ARENA
UNLIKE ART IMPRESARIO GERTRUDE STEIN’S famed philosophy, “a rose is a rose is a rose,” sometimes an arena is not an arena is not an arena. The Holsteiner mare Nouri (by Caesar) had given up on
the arena. When she entered the arena she held her breath and refused to go forward despite spurs and whip. The owner ran out of ideas and gave the 16.3 hand mare to eventer Amy Farrell.
In response to Nouri’s dislike for the arena, Amy hit the
trail with the big bay horse, usually riding her in a western saddle. She also took her into an arena to gallop and gallop and gallop. They did ground work in the round pen and bareback riding to try to re-sensitize her to the leg and seat. “She has a lot of mental skeletons in her closet,” Amy says. “If you even gently bumped your leg on her she
would be ready to wage war. She did not even load onto Warmbloods Today 25
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