About this Project

Well, this is a sponsored event which involves me, Maria Wood, living in the field with Hazel and Pollyanne, both of whom are horses, for up to four days. I will not just be there, in the field, sitting on a chair observing them. I will in fact be trying to live by their routine. This means that I will be sleeping when they do, which means I will probably have a few standing up snoozes and a few minutes of proper sleep a day. No bother.

It also means that I will be moving around the field with them as they graze. I will take this opportunity to study the fauna of the field in all its tiny details. It will mean other things too but I don’t know what they are yet. And this is the idea. I want to learn what it is like for one species to live according to another’s regime. Generally it is the horse that has to do this and I thought that by switching roles I might get an idea of how they feel in this situation.

I also want to learn more about their sleeping habits, how long they really do eat for, how much they groom each other and whether they look at the stars at night time. I’ll be taking notes and by the end of it I hope to have a much better understanding of what it is to be a horse. I hope that I will learn to connect with them better and to learn what they really do need from us.

Luckily there will be a full moon for most of the four days so at least I will be able to see at night time.  Pollyanne is white (well, technically grey) so at least she will be easy to spot.  Hazel however is black. mmm.

I will be uploading podcasts to this blog which will consist of live recordings in the field during the day and night.  I’m hoping that our local barn owl will be obliging enough to make its call while I am recording so you can hear the spine chilling sound I will have to put up with in the dead of the night! I will also be updating the site with text posts and photos.

Standby for more updates.