This is my first film. I didn’t set out to buy a horse and make a movie about it. It just…. simply put… “happened”. I’ve had a long and satisfying career as a professional musician, concert producer, and songwriter. I have been a cancer survivor twice now, enjoy motorcycling and bicycling, and live a pretty full life. At the time when the seeds of this film were being planted, I was also retiring from a long career in Critical Care Nursing, enjoying some down time, and looking for something fun to do.
I saw this ad in the Sunday paper that read: “Do you love horses, and would you like to learn to ride”. I have dreamed about learning to ride horses all of my life. I answered the ad and went out to this barn in Canby Oregon, and out in the field was this brand new Half-Arab/Half-Saddlebred foal, one of the two hottest breeds in the world of horses. At the time, I had no idea what that really meant. I bought her.
Tehya was, and is, stunningly intelligent and beautiful. The second she peeked her head around from behind her mom and looked straight at me, I was smitten, bitten, gone, captivated, and standing mesmerized in a world I knew absolutely nothing about. I was, in short, in for the long haul, instantly engaged in what marked the beginning of a most compelling journey with a little horse whose mighty spirit has changed my life forever.
The filmmaking part evolved from what started out as “oooo look at my horse, isn’t she pretty” and quickly transitioned to “ oh my god, what have I done!” Horses I would soon learn are prey animals and we humans are predators. So when I show up with my lead rope, with the intention of taking her out of a safe place, I might as well be an alligator inviting her to dinner. When I take her for a walk, and we pass by a green hose laying up against the barn, I see a hose, she sees an anaconda, and responds in the only way a prey animal would. From that first moment I met her to Tehya’s first saddling experience, the journey documented in this movie marks the beginning of bringing these two worlds together for one human and one little horse through the ‘language and leadership’ of what Pat and Linda Parelli call Natural Horsemanship.
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