The Art and Science of Observation
Little arrows of water sting my face and encourage me to turn my back to the wind-borne rain. I drop to sit and claim a dry patch before the worst of the downpour arrives. Settling into the soft hillside, I wait for the approaching soak to pass.
Peering out from underneath my hood I see amassed droplets unravelling and folding across the steep hillsides like luminous grey sheets. The effort of toiling up this steep path was worth every laboured breath and challenged muscle. From this elevated viewpoint, the moorlands are deeply scored by sharp river valleys which cut between hillsides all around. A rich abundance and variety of trees cling to the peripheries of these valleys, surviving and thriving in the steep places where hungry mouths cannot reach to bite and chew. These pockets of vertical forest are the ancient remnants of what once was and what might be again. But for now, the landscape in every direction is a green sea of rippling, surging grass.
Flowing across this rain-gilded, iridescent landscape like a rippling shoal of fish is a small group of magnificent black Fell ponies—the reason I’m here, of course!1 Fell ponies have inhabited this land of hills and lakes for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years. They are beautifully adapted to this environment, thriving in the landscape after which they are named, although I prefer to think that the land is named after them.
The gift of studying horses in the environments they’ve evolved to inhabit is the opportunity to better understand their lives in context, to see the blueprint of who they are. Observing their natural adaptive behaviours helps me understand what it is to be a horse by showing me their telos.2 Telos is the set of distinctive traits and powers that allow an animal to function and thrive. It is the interplay between their physical, social, cognitive, and emotional lives that has been shaped by millions of years of evolution. A good life for horses is one that allows them to fulfil their telos, a life that suits their characteristic nature—the horse-ness of a horse.
In these paradigm-shifting times, replete with the pressures on our social license to operate, unpicking and clearly defining what a good life means to a horse couldn’t be more important.3 Observation of horses living life on their own terms is the best way to gather the vital information needed to have conversations about what matters to horses, so that we can bring about a world that honours, respects and treats equines in species-appropriate ways.
But observation and clear seeing are more difficult than we may be led to believe. Although anthropomorphism can be used critically to help our understanding, it is more often used unconsciously and unhelpfully in our descriptions of horse behaviour. We place a human lens firmly between us and the wonderful animals we are striving to understand. Bias clouds and distorts what we see and believe, doing no justice to the rich complexity of horses. We put words in their mouths and label them with human-like qualities, we assume that we know what is going on in their worlds and what matters to them, we make ourselves feel better by the stories we tell. This way of interpreting horses isn’t helping us or them.
One of the most powerful things we can do for our horses is to see and understand them for who they are rather than who we want them to be. When we begin to understand what matters to horses, we can better care of them and meet their needs, providing a life that makes sense and helps them to feel safe.
I’d like to invite you to explore some ways of seeing, both structured and creative, that can help us understand who horses are and what matters to them. We enter the world of horses in a gentle and curious way and explore their physical and emotional landscapes, creating an awareness of another way of being and showing us how to connect and find mutually beneficial ways of being together.
"As the student we go into the world because that is where the knowledge is" –Tim Ingold
Fieldwork:
Remember that one of the most powerful things we can do for our horses is to see and understand them from their own perspective. Ethological observation invites us to listen, feel, and engage all our senses as we observe. It’s about showing up and taking responsibility for ourselves in the space, dialling down our tendency to interpret or judge, and letting the horse show us the way to clearer understanding.
Here is the framework for observation that I follow as a way of building the muscle of discernment and clear perception. It’s the balance point between art and science, the structure which gives birth to creative insights. It is a set of rules to practice until they become so deep-rooted and natural we can effectively follow threads of enquiry. What emerges from these questions is a deeper, clearer understanding of individual horses, and the equine species itself. It’s an encouragement to question everything, our curiosity leaves no stone unturned and no assumption unexamined.
Concepts underpinning the framework include:
1) Good observation is like good listening:
Be curious.
Be kind.
Cultivate an inner softness.
Hold space for the other (the ones being observed).
Allow them space to express what they need to express.
Staying grounded in yourself.
Practice the ability to take a step back.
The idea here is that we don’t get stuck in the narrative: remain objective, but with empathy.
2) Structure your practice:
Stay open, quiet and attentive.
Make a plan but don’t get attached to it.
Try using an ethogram (see below for an example) but follow the horse's lead.
Jot down what we see but resist assuming, interpreting or judging.
When you see something think “how interesting! I wonder what’s happening? Even (especially!?) if you think you already know.
We watch attentively by structuring our seeing. We count steps, notice proximity between horses, notice how many times the horse scratches his left knee or stops to rub her muzzle on a fencepost, notice when horses move together and apart. When we enter the space of horses in this way, we blend with the experience of what unfolds in front of us.
3) How do we blend with the horse’s experience?
Give them space by keeping our distance. Stay grounded.
Enliven all our senses: aware of wind in the grass, birdsong, and other environmental factors
Practice equine vision by using a soft gaze, open to a panoramic awareness of the environment and others in it.
Move if we need to move, don’t pretend to be invisible, they’ll know we’re there!
Go along with the actions of the horses (rest when they rest, walk when they walk).
What’s happening when we practice in this way is we become alive in the experience allowing insights to abound.
This is participant observation, an embodied practice; we’re showing up in their world and taking responsibility for ourselves. We begin to apprehend the lived experience of horses through their eyes and, although we can never really know the inner life of another, we can make an informed and educated analysis of the information we gather which leads us to a deep understanding of who horses are. This practice is a beautiful union of art and science, of objectivity and imagination.
It may all sound quite heady, but it’s just a perspective shift and a simple practice, a skill that is well within our grasp. One of the benefits of being with horses in this way is that it can give them reassurance, a deep and abiding sense of safety because you’re listening to them. By letting go of the imperative to do things with horses while you spend time observing them in this way, you see them as they are and on their own terms. It’s simple yet incredibly profound.
Go outside, find a place to perch, perhaps on a rock or a log, tune down your mental chatter, tune up your senses—and observe. Breathe deep. Pay attention. Take notes. Enter their world in a gentle, curious, respectful way.
References:
Collaboration between The Fell Pony Heritage Trust and Learning Wild. https://www.fpht.co.uk/ https://learningwilduk.wixsite.com/learningwild
Telos in this context is a term coined by the late veterinary ethicist Professor Bernard Rollin. See (2008) “Rollin’s Theory of Animal Welfare and Its Ethical Implications”. In: Haynes, R.P. (eds) Animal Welfare. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8619-9_9.
“Social Licence to Operate: What Can Equestrian Sports Learn from Other Industries?” Douglas et al, Animals 2022, 12, 1987. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/15/1987
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