EquIncontro
Horses & Nature
Our philosophy
a new way of conceiving the encounter between man and horse
EquIncontro Natura was born with the dream to bring people of all ages closer to the horse and nature, through an ethical and balanced approach with the horse itself, but also to suggest new didactic horizons ad educators, teachers and social workers, who interact with the horse in their professional role.
Our journey began and continues today with the aim of transmitting the knowledge of the horse as a social being and promoting a interaction ethical and conscious, _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_ essential from a natural context, as a good for people, animals and as a value to be protected and spread.
EquIncontro Natura draws inspiration from the zooanthropological approach as an indispensable modality for a healthy and ethical interaction between man and horse, rejecting any use of the horse of a performance nature. This approach, which is based on the recognition of subjectivity, diversity and the peculiarity of animal otherness , finds a more general application in the our relationship with all living beings, animals, plants and even humans.
In the activities promoted by EquIncontro Natura, the horse is a travel companion, a means that guides us to rediscover the authentic contact with ourselves and what surrounds us.
In fact, relating in an authentic way with the horse means rediscovering the value of the relationship as a universal key for interacting with other living beings - human and non-human - and resuming or deepening contact with oneself.
EquIncontro Natura is also about cultivating a culture of peace through constantly updated information, enriched by in-depth meetings on social, fair-trade issues and in general regarding ethical and sustainable living.
EquIncontro Natura is an opportunity to learn and deepen with a systemic , experiential and interactive approach aspects concerning the flora and fauna of our territory, also through zooanthropological excursions and field observations.
The association is aimed at all people, adults and children, with special attention to those who, disadvantaged o handicapped people, can find, in the various facets and expressions of 'zooanthropological, relational and systemic approach, a way to express and enhance one's own peculiarity and uniqueness, fundamental values in the philosophy of the association.
EquIncontro Natura, therefore, as an encounter with the horse, an encounter with nature but also an encounter with oneself , to regain possession of a dimension that is too often suffocated by everyday life.
The horses of EquIncontro Natura await you in the natural setting of the Castelli Romani Park for a rich and profound experience.
Not to be missed!!!
Builders of Peace
When an ethical approach to horse and nature becomes an important instrumento di pace
“Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to create good citizens. If children hear beautiful music from the day of their birth, and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and perseverance, they get a beautiful heart "
Shiniki Suzuki
This section, dedicated to Peace, begins with a quote from Shiniki Suzuki, a famous violinist and teacher of the last century who, with his method, introduced millions of children to music.
His "mission" was to contribute with music to the inner education of man, developing hidden abilities that could give quality to life.
Equincontro Natura loves to approach with humility and admiration the philosophy of the great master Suzuki through a wonderful parallel:
our music at EquIncontro Natura is the horse ;
The intent is to make the horse known from other perspectives, in order to promote a different, healthier and more aware approach to this animal, also through a path of personal growth that feeds and promotes a culture of peace in a broader sense.
The increasingly cumbersome presence of man on earth, with the consequent pressure on the environment and living creatures, as well as his marked predilection for animals that for pleasure or usefulness have accompanied him in his evolution, makes man-horse coexistence deeply established.
Some currents of the animalist reality believe that the best thing man can do for animals (including horses) is to become extinct. In reality, even man in all his manifestations (even the most nefarious) is an animal product of nature. And if our cultural evolution has led us to distortions and aberrations that have exalted the deleterious effects of a clearly utilitarian approach (which on the other hand is also typical of other species) to the detriment of other creatures, we deeply believe that a different coexistence, based on mutual recognition, both desirable but also feasible.
We are convinced that animals should not only succumb to the invasiveness of genius and human recklessness, but that a healthy and balanced relationship with man is possible, a contact that is a source of mutual benefit .
And the binomial man - horse, with the right conditions, can be a valid example.
Beyond the zootechnical use of the horse and its use in rural labor activities, mostly overcome in most of the world together with the use of war, the bulk of the human-horse interaction currently passes through conventional riding and recreational and sporting equestrian activities that refer to it.
Unfortunately, in this type of approach, especially in the sports field, we train to abuse the horse, with little attention to its needs as a species and as an individual. Regarding the management of the horse, everything, from the housing, to the feeding, to the rhythms, to the tools (irons and bits included) is designed for the comfort and usability of man and in terms of performance of the horse. From a behavioral point of view, there is almost an obsession with respect (very often one-way, that is, the one owed by the horse), with asserting oneself, with dominance or leadership, a term used and abused by alternative currents of "natural" riding .
In this invasive and obtuse perspective, with rare exceptions, even the smallest are initiated and the exuberance and arrogance which is absolutely normal and physiological in children, takes over, perfectly reconciling with the methods (often) quite small change. instructor on duty. Result: tiger children on toy ponies pushed to levels of competition that not even an adult could endure without consequences, not to mention the discomfort of horses. The less "aggressive" children, who show a certain reluctance to "guide" the horse by imposing commands and directives on it, soon begin to experience a type of frustration that they will be able to encounter abundantly in the course of life, in a society that enhances competition and it pays little attention to the nature of the individual, whether human or animal, instead encouraging standardization and standardization. The reluctance of these children is often labeled (even by the parents themselves) as insecurity, incapacity and this gives free access to fears and feelings of inadequacy.
And this also applies to those adults who grasp the distortions of the world of horse riding, but despite having a maturity that allows them to classify the discomfort and rationalize it, not knowing alternatives, continue the life of riding and then often completely fall out of love and abandon the their passion for the horse.
After these reflections, it seems obvious to underline how the conventional approach to the horse (and also a good part of what is defined as "natural"), is light years away from promoting a culture of peace that passes through the recognition and enhancement of inter differences. / intraspecific. It does not facilitate a culture of sharing, empathy and elasticity but pushes towards the achievement of objectives with little regard to the path taken, the means to achieve them and mutual well-being and knowledge.
But let's try to consider the horse from the Zooanthropological point of view, as a sentient being endowed with the requisites of subjectivity, diversity, peculiarity. This alone requires an openness to constructive confrontation, a sensitivity, a recognition of one's own limits and essence (you know who you are just when you are authentically confronted with something different), a willingness to enter into an empathic contact and understand the needs of on the other hand, to listen to ourselves and to what is outside us, decentralizing the attention on the other and on the threshold between the perceptions of the respective worlds.
Placing yourself in front of a horse, aware of being in front of, not an object on which to pour one's expectations, frustrations, desires but to a travel companion, with whom to mutually contaminate the respective differences, is a fantastic adventure and at the same time a real school of life.
An experience that also profoundly affects the way we relate to our conspecifics, opening the doors to a culture of understanding and sharing.
A holistic and systemic approach, aimed at considering global aspects of well-being and the relationship, can only have a value that goes far beyond the human-horse interaction and develops qualities and attitudes that predispose to a more constructive comparison with what surrounds us. , whatever its nature.
Another quote to finish
… Be the change you would like to see in the world…. Gahndi
Change attitude and approach towards animals that have always been used and bent to the needs of man, learn to immerse ourselves in their point of view by refining our perceptions, not for rhetorical do-gooders but for the genuine desire to share our existence with them in a loyal and ethical, it can really train us to be the change we would like to see in the world, in a universal sense and beyond any speciesism.
As promoter of a culture of Peace and integration, Equincontro Natura, in addition to promoting an ethical and authentic approach to the horse, makes itself available for twinning and multi-ethnic social activities, also in collaboration with other associations and cultural centers.
To propose or report activities write to: info@equincontro.it
The Zooanthropological Approach
the report in the center
The relationship between man and horse and more in general between man and animal, with the right conditions, is a fantastic opportunity for the exchange of contents and roles, between humans and other creatures. Zooanthropology is a discipline that analyzes the relationship and the human-animal interchange that it produces.
The novelty of the zooanthropological approach is that the active contribution of the animal in this interchange does not derive from its mere use, but from the relationship itself; the horse, in our case, is no longer seen as a performance provider, or a sports tool, but as a partner, a companion of experiences and activities . This by life to a completely innovative way of conceiving the encounter between human and non-human and the exchange it generates.
In the zooanthropological approach, the animal is defined as "otherness" , that is to say a being gifted di _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136__bad79094-5 136bad5cf58d_ subjectivity (as opposed to the animal-object), diversity with respect to man (non-anthropomorphization) and peculiarity (non-categorization).
The horse therefore regains its dignity di being sentient and peculiar: in the di being sentient and peculiar: in the 5 -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_of the horse, but of that individual, of that horse. And as an individual with his own character and his own subjectivity, his interaction with man is considered a dialogue, an active participation and not simply reactive, projective and use , that is, where the animal is transformed respectively into a thing, icon or instrument
This way of perceiving and describing animal otherness, puts man in a position to accept it in its fullness e _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb358b_bad5cd 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_by man getting involved in a meeting-confrontation that brings out different motivations, emotions and interpretations of his being human, allowing him to undertake a path of self-knowledge and change.
In the activities of Equincontro Natura the well-being of the horse is placed in the foreground, an indispensable prerequisite for any ethical interaction, trying to make available and enhance the mutual contributions that are generated by the man-horse relationship and strengthen the _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_capacity of both to effect mutually beneficial changes, through a different perspective of the world.
For further information on the zooanthropological approach, http://www.csiz.eu/pdf/documenti_aree/zooantropologica/Manifesto_Zooantropologia.pdf
Systemic Thinking
the illusion of separation
Probably the distinctly human tendency to separate the various aspects of life derives from the need to understand them better.
In truth , everything that surrounds us and ourselves, belong to a strictly interconnected and inseparable reality .
It is important to know, discover, identify, catalog, investigate specific aspects, but only if you do not lose sight of what binds the whole and that makes the whole not just the sum of the parts but something that has some emerging properties not attributable to the single component.
All the various aspects of the activities of EquIncontro Natura presented on this site have been collected in sections and then "categorized" exclusively to try to convey in a clearer way the type of experiences that can be lived in the training meetings and to allow both cybernauts that to those who physically participate in person, to orient themselves in the various aspects, naturalistic, relational, zooanthropological etc ....
We try to underline how in reality, the encounter with the horse, the natural context, the philosophy behind it , represent a whole that will give, in particular to lived experiences, a value that goes beyond_cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_ of the individual topics covered. (Image from the web)
Children and Horses
the experiences that make you grow
We are inclined by our nature to compare everything which surrounds us, using the add-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_experiences world we live in. This now automatic mechanism allows us to enrich our wealth of knowledge and from childhood, it lays the foundations to interpret and build our reality.
The encounter with diversity is an important opportunity to know ourselves precisely because in part, we understand what we are when we are confronted with what we are not.
When the encounter with other living beings takes place with respect and attention, with an attitude of listening, without prevarication and imposition, the path of mutual knowledge represents a journey, not only to the discovery of other but also of ourselves.
The receptivity, the lack of consolidated superstructures typical of the adult and the spontaneity of children, combined with a right approach to diversity, subjectivity and animal peculiarities, is a unique alchemy. It allows to generate from the child-horse encounter and from their entering into a relationship, an important contribution for both: una more defined self-awareness in the child; _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_ the possibility of one interaction more_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136b-136bad5cf58d-3194-bb58b_autent5cf58d_c
Another very important outcome of this meeting and of the focus on the relationship is a training in recognition and respect for the other, which goes far beyond the human-animal dynamics and predisposes the child to listening and empathic and non-violent interaction with other people. .
Introduce children and young people into the world of the horse and let them experience a healthy interaction, respecting its equine "culture", without imposing the human point of view on the horse, _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_ taking responsibility for communication, means creating or consolidating the foundations for a culture of peace and directing the little ones towards a conscious adulthood, in which the relationship is the key the fulcrum for interaction with other beings and diversity, un important stimulus to better understand oneself and the other.
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