I realize that for some reason lately I am inclined to take frequently pictures of horses. Not that these pictures are great or anything, but I have many. Most of these I just discard because they look so-so or too cliched for my taste. Some look totally forgettable. In this case, although I thought the framing was really ugly, the photo appealed to me. One of the horses was combing through the other’s coat with his teeth, with such a familiarity and tenderness that I was deeply impressed. Perhaps tenderness was only something I saw and the gesture thus acquired a different meaning in my eyes. As people, we tend to idealize animal behavior, so I wouldn’t find it surprising. Still, animals — and mammals in special way — are often so fascinating to us also because, when we look at them, we recognize intentions similar to our own, but purer.
I enjoy watching my horses do this mutual grooming, also. Sometimes when I scratch an itchy part of them, they want to groom me. I have to stop them short as I think my skin would tear. They do get a dreamy look in their eyes when grooming.
That’s cute =)
This picture makes me think in a beatiful poem by the norwegian poet Astrid Hjertenaes Andersen,”Horses in rain”: When my mind is filled with dreaming/ More evasive and more secret/ Than my thinking could explain/So much wilder and more heated/ Than my heart could comprehend// I would stand inside the rain/ Like a horse stands in the rain/ In a wide and lonely meadow/ Between heavy hils and here//Stand and feel my body drinking this/ Cool and heady moisture/ Flowing down like a river/ Over face and hair and hands// Like a forest drinking/ Out of heaven”s breasts/Just like a baby/ Like a field full of sweetness/ Trembling with soft desire/Like a horse stands in the rain/ Head bent low and humbly resting// While the scent of soil and wetness/ Charges through my senses/ I would stand inside the rain/ And let heaven”s wells open/Until my mind,free from fever/Brings my dreams to conclusion// In a stern and quiet peace.
I like the photo and the poem. I think Nordic countries, Norway and Iceland in this case, share a special kinship. It’s not hard to think these images evokes are proper of somebody who’s familiar with the Icelandic landscape.