When I grew up, another of my favorite pastimes besides dancing and acting, was to horseback ride and care for horses. So today, I gave myself a visit to the Portugese Equestrian School of Art, as an early birthday gift!
I used to groom too, including braiding the mane and put oil on the hoofs before our competitions in dressage. I took classes for about 10 years. (You can read more about it in my book "The Call for Divine Mothering" .)
In comparison to these guys, I guess you could say I'm at their first level and can do things like simple change canter, shoulder in, sideway in trot, turn on the forehand, half pirouettes in walking and extended trot. Most learned on ponies though!
These Portuguese horses are of a breed called Lusitano, which surprised me to be small enough.
Interestingly enough, some of the dance motions we do in Isadora Duncan dance reminds of certain steps, like pirouettes and pramses, besides the filing in and out on stage. The Equestrian Art here in Portugal is dated back to 1434.
Dressage is dancing with a horse!