Don’t go horsewatching if…

Horsewatching is a wonderful activity. But it’s certainly not for everyone! To truly understand and enjoy it, you need to be willing to develop certain qualities and put your perceptual skills to the test.

**Patience**—and I’d add a good dose of laziness—is one of the essential qualities for horsewatching. You’re there, watching the horses for hours without anything much happening, then suddenly, in a matter of moments, everything goes wild, and you thank your lucky stars for being in exactly the right place at that exact moment and for having waited for a moment that was truly worth experiencing.

**Perseverance** in all weather conditions: whether it’s windy, rainy, sunny, or cloudy; whether it’s hot or cold; whether you’re sleepy, alert, hungry, or numb. Rest assured that if you keep watching them, sooner or later something special will happen!

**Wide-ranging attention** is another useful quality for the horsewatcher. By wide-ranging attention, I mean a gaze that takes in broad views, making use of peripheral vision—perhaps not completely in focus, but capable of catching imperceptible movements and dynamics to be brought into focus later with care. This is the gaze that multiplies the opportunities to capture interactions that you wouldn’t be able to detect if you were focusing on a narrower field.

**Interest** in everything that happens. Observing horses in the wild or in their natural habitat, means being immersed in a natural setting full of characters. Simple extras who sometimes become the true protagonists of unique scenes! And so foxes, wild boars, toads, finches, redstarts, herons, kestrels, and buzzards, but also choruses of field crickets, cicadas, and swarms of midges enliven the scene and interact more or less actively, giving us a more realistic idea of what a horse’s day is like in his own environment.

**The perception** of every tiny movement—an ear that lowers, a tail that sweeps the air, a lip that softens, a sigh, a twitch of the muscles beneath the skin. It is a skill to be trained and cultivated. Once acquired and refined, there are no longer moments when nothing happens. Every moment offers interactions invisible to most, yet they reveal dialogues and dynamics rich in content and meaning.

**The curiosity** to understand what is happening, why it is happening, when it is happening, how it is happening, who is involved, and to try to decipher even the most subtle dynamics occurring within the herd

**Empathy** that allows us to set aside the boundaries that define our reality and to resonate with emotions, energies, dynamics, and situations by taking part in them, no longer simply external observers but elements incorporated into the scene being observed.

Therefore, **it is strongly discouraged** for anyone who is extremely dynamic, has a short attention span, is impatient, interventionist, easily distracted, or who does not love horses and nature to practice horsewatching. They might risk finding themselves neck-deep in an activity that can literally turn their lives upside down, catapulting them into a universe of unimaginable perceptions and emotions! ❤️🐴

Try it to believe it!

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