(It's in Icelandic)
The Chinese character for “horse”
My mother takes the Chinese zodiac very seriously, and has enforced our family to wear a red string around our waists when the year is of our animal. Currently, my father is the unfortunate victim of such an act. Not only does such a practice bring luck, my mother claims, but it shows respect to the animal. I, like many of the class of 2012, was born in the year of the horse. The horse personality is very much associated with liberty and freedom. My mother describes them as being confident and strong, and most of all, independent. Their attitude of “DON’T FENCE ME IN” (X844) carries from the heaving muscles of their flanks to “rollers in [their] nose” (X849).
My love and adoration for horses has not quite extended to the extremes depicted in Peter Shaffer’s play Equus
When I was little, if I found someone to be rather handsome, I would describe them as ‘looking like a horse’. This was because I could not find any other way to convey the nobility of their looks, nor the strength and royal way they carried themselves. Others always balked at my remarks, but I knew that my comparison of a person to a horse was the highest form my flattery could take. These animals are majestic and mysterious, with “every high snort bugling out the pride of the free” (X877). I believe that the most attractive thing about a horse is its wild and unlimited nature. Being able to see “wild horses streaming across the prairies” (X847) or watching the wind streak through their manes really makes one feel like they are witnessing something mystical, something forgotten in this modern world.
“Only the sense of being in place gives natural horse or natural man contentment” (X851). What pleasure a horse must derive from galloping in the open fields, just as a man would receive joy at being able to do what he wishes! When we take a horse, or any other animal for that matter, away from its natural surroundings, we are doing to it what no man would want for himself. Being able to BE has now become one of my central arguments for animals, for isn’t that what any living creature wishes for? In this day and age in which we pride individuality and coexistence with other cultures, shouldn’t we extend this practice to nonhumans, who have just as much right to be here as we do?
Power, strength and freedom: three characteristics I have come to associate with the horse.
The Chinese character for “horse”My mother takes the Chinese zodiac very seriously, and has enforced our family to wear a red string around our waists when the year is of our animal. Currently, my father is the unfortunate victim of such an act. Not only does such a practice bring luck, my mother claims, but it shows respect to the animal. I, like many of the class of 2012, was born in the year of the horse. The horse personality is very much associated with liberty and freedom. My mother describes them as being confident and strong, and most of all, independent. Their attitude of “DON’T FENCE ME IN” (X844) carries from the heaving muscles of their flanks to “rollers in [their] nose” (X849).
My love and adoration for horses has not quite extended to the extremes depicted in Peter Shaffer’s play EquusWhen I was little, if I found someone to be rather handsome, I would describe them as ‘looking like a horse’. This was because I could not find any other way to convey the nobility of their looks, nor the strength and royal way they carried themselves. Others always balked at my remarks, but I knew that my comparison of a person to a horse was the highest form my flattery could take. These animals are majestic and mysterious, with “every high snort bugling out the pride of the free” (X877). I believe that the most attractive thing about a horse is its wild and unlimited nature. Being able to see “wild horses streaming across the prairies” (X847) or watching the wind streak through their manes really makes one feel like they are witnessing something mystical, something forgotten in this modern world.
“Only the sense of being in place gives natural horse or natural man contentment” (X851). What pleasure a horse must derive from galloping in the open fields, just as a man would receive joy at being able to do what he wishes! When we take a horse, or any other animal for that matter, away from its natural surroundings, we are doing to it what no man would want for himself. Being able to BE has now become one of my central arguments for animals, for isn’t that what any living creature wishes for? In this day and age in which we pride individuality and coexistence with other cultures, shouldn’t we extend this practice to nonhumans, who have just as much right to be here as we do?
Power, strength and freedom: three characteristics I have come to associate with the horse.Now, reverting back to the argument for the humane treatment of animals, if we cannot extend our sympathetic imagination to understand their pain and suffering at our hands, let us instead try to acknowledge the freedom that they deserve, that we all deserve. It is something we value, especially in this country, and if we cannot appreciate the “spirit of freedom” (X842) that all animals have to climb, run, gallop, and simply to BE, then we have not understood the concept very well at all.
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