#breed context: He's a thoroughbred

[martincrushcameback]

Chris gets to be a race horse because I said so. 83

[transperceneige]

There's a horse story I was told about and I literally can't get it out of my head so I kinda need to lay it out here.

Tw : it gets pretty gruesome, so skip entirely if you don't want to hear about horrific injuries caused by a horse.

So I was talking with a friend who's an excellent rider - she's 50+ years old now, has been working with horses her entire life, and at one point was competing at quite high level in eventing and show jumping. Let's call her M.

At some point in our conversation, she said something about that time she broke her back falling from a horse, so I asked her what happened.

Turns out that, in the 80s, when she was in her final year of high school, she got a part-time job working for a trainer specialized in backing young horses - aka teaching them to wear a saddle and bridle, and to carry someone on their back for the first time. They were also teaching the young horses the basics of under-saddle work, as well as working with 'difficult' horses, whose owners had trouble breaking in themselves.

(just for context, this is all happening 30+ years ago in rural southwestern France)

My friend M. is quite a petite, muscular woman, and was even more so at barely 18yo, and her athleticism and competency as a horse rider made her extremely good at this job. Basically, she was unshakable, and could stay in the saddle through the worst young horses' tantrums - rearing, kicking, jumping up and down, she had seen it all and very rarely got unseated.

The head trainer had different kind of riders working for him - big guys, tall guys, small guys, and my small female friend - and would try to find the better 'fit' for each horse. For instance, for some horses the process of being first ridden would go more smoothly with a big guy, some were more easily handled by women, etc.

After a few months working for the head trainer, M. got a ride on an especially difficult horse : Jaquin.

Jaquin was a tall, gorgeous chestnut anglo-arab, with an incredible pedigree (bloodlines so good, M. said that horse was probably worth more than her current house).

That was in the 80s, so anglo-arabs were still basically half arabian blood, half thoroughbred, meaning they tended to be especially hot horses, full of blood and stamina. Basically born to jump and run cross-country, but with quite a reputation for difficult temperament.

Jaquin was a superb specimen, and was still owned by the couple running the breeding farm he was born at.

But there was a serious problem with this horse : despite being raised in 'normal' conditions (aka no abuse, handled by professionals with a long experience with horses, and no evidence of any physical pain), this horse had stayed all his life dangerous to handle, and very aggressive towards people. The owners had tried it all with him - but at 7yo, Jaquin was still a nightmare, so they got him castrated, hoping it would help make him less dangerously dominant.

Sadly for them, that didn't change a thing (basically : the castration was too late to really impact his behaviour), and the horse was still unriddable (which was kind of a bummer for a horse bred for competition).

In a last-ditch attempt to make something of this horse of fantastic potential but awful behaviour, the owners sent him to the facility M. was working at.

At first, the head trainer tried to have him worked by some of the other riders, but no one was able to get anywhere with the horse. So the head trainer asked M.

He also told her : never, ever stay alone with that horse, don't be alone with him in the stable, and don't ever ride him alone. That was the first time he had given her such advice.

But rightly so : M. was absolutely unable to approach the horse. He'd see her and try to attack. He's see anyone and try to attack and bite if given the chance, but was especially agressive towards small people, like my friend who's barely 1.50m tall. Despite all her experience with handling horses on the ground, M. was never able to even simply put a halter on Jaquin, as he would physically try to crush her.

The guys working at the barn had to get him ready for her, and they'd never ever get in his stall without a pitchfork in one hand.

M. told me she had never met a horse like that, and she never did again in her life.

The head trainer too was baffled, and agreed with M. that this horse had something deeply rooted in him that shone through his look.

M. described it as a glow in the horses' eyes, some sort of evil glimmer that made no sense for a prey animal. M. said you'd feel constantly watched when Jaquin was in the barn, like being watched by predator on the hunt. He'd see something or someone he could assert his dominance over and would try to tear through them at the first given chance.

There truly was the weirdest, most chilling vibe emanating from this horse.

So : that is a lot of red flags. But being 18yo and needing money, M. carried on and rode the horse. And riding a horse as difficult as Jaquin came with really good money (at least for her standards at the time).

M. being fearful and very competent, she actually managed to get somewhere with this horse. She got 15 rides on him. The 15th was the last one.

She told me the ride was actually really good, she had reached some goals with the horse's training and he worked well under saddle.

But M. said she made one mistake : she patted Jaquin at the end, and let go of the reins to let him walk with his head free. For some reason, that was a huge trigger for him.

Immediately, Jaquin leaped forward in the air, and threw himself on the arena's wall. M. got thrown off, and was catapulted a few feet from Jaquin. She said she was sure Jaquin tried to crush her against the wall with that first throw.

Now, the arena she was in was built for working with young horses, and as such there was a space left between the ground and the bottom part of the boards forming the wall. That space was there for when people were getting thrown off, so that they could roll over, get their body into that space, and avoid getting trampled by a scared young horse.

So M. was on the ground, at a certain distance from Jaquin - so technically she was safe and didn't need to roll under the wall. But when she looked up, she saw Jaquin looking directly at her. He then put his ears backwards, completely flat on his head, and opened his mouth, showing his teeth. M. said the horse made a noise she could only describe as a growl, and charged at her at full speed.

Knowing her only chance was to get into the small space at the base of the wall, she rolled over as fast as she could, just rolled and rolled towards the edge of the arena.

But as she was just a few centimeters away, Jaquin had caught up. M. was mid-roll, on her belly, head toward the ground. Jaquin lifted one of his foreleg up, and then put his feet down right on her back, between her two shoulder blades. And then he pushed, and pushed, literally crushing her.

All this was happening in the span of a few seconds - the head trainer, who was in the arena riding another horse, rushed to intervene, as did another guy on foot. They had to physically hit Jaquin to get him off M.

In that time, Jaquin had crushed a few vertebraes on M's back.

She had to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, and had to stay in bed, unable to move, for six months. She missed half of her senior year in high school.

Still, she told me the money she had made off of riding Jaquin covered her living expenses for almost a full year after high school.

After she finished her story, I had one question in mind : what happened to Jaquin after all that?

M. told me the head trainer sent him back to his owners after that accident, basically saying the horse was beyond help.

What happened after, she did not see herself, but she was told about. That's when this story gets gruesome.

Three months after M's accident, Jaquin was in the stables at his owner's place - the place where he had been born and raised as a foal.

Then comes the owners' son, a 7 year old boy. That boy probably had been told to never approach Jaquin, but being a kid and all, he probably didn't follow the rule, unaware of the danger - M. wasn't privy to the details of how exactly the kid put himself in this situation.

What followed is the most fucked-up thing I've heard about a horse.

Jaquin, seeing the boy approach, decided to attack. He turned his head 90 degrees, opened his jaw and lunged for the kid. The boy's face being small, Jaquin could cover it with his opened mouth, and he bit him with each set of teeth on each side of the kid's face. Crushing his skull with all of his force.

The kid died instantly.

...

After that horrific aggression, Jaquin was finally put down (euthanized).

He had killed a child ; not by accident, but unprovoked, with full intent to kill.

That story really stuck with me.

Horses are very pacific creatures, they're scared prey animals, and any aggressivity from them always stems from being put into danger or having been abused.

But I guess once in a blue moon, a horse like Jaquin is born.

Maybe there was something undetected with Jaquin after all - that, we'll never know. But M's recollection of that horse truly made me think : in medieval times, that's the kind of creatures we would have said is the devil incarnated.

[thescienceofequus]

Habituation vs. Learned Helplessness in Horses

By Sue McDonnell, PhD, Certified AAB | TheHorse.com | 3 May, 2017

Q  I saw a trainer “habituating” a mare to scary objects at a clinic last year. When he was done with the process, the mare looked as if she’d simply given up or zoned out about the tarp-flapping, etc., which to me looked a lot like the “learned helplessness” I’ve read about on TheHorse.com. Approaches that could lead to learned helplessness seem unethical. Is it possible to desensitize a horse in a welfare-friendly way?

A. Unfortunately, in the dog and horse training worlds there has been a fair amount of misunderstanding and misapplication of the scientific principles and terminology of animal learning. So your question offers an opportunity to explain these very important principles and their implications.

In learning science, habituation refers to a progressive decrease in one’s response to exposure to a stimulus over time. In the horse world, we most often think of habituation as that to nonharmful stimuli to which horses innately and almost reflexively react. With repeated exposure below the threshold for escape or panic, the horse’s response to the stimulus decreases gradually and may disappear, such that we might say the horse is “getting used to it.”

I recently observed this when watching a 24-hour video of a horse. The horse was brought to a new facility and placed in a stall, which happened to be right next to a very noisy thermostatically controlled heater. The first couple of times the heater kicked on, the horse startled and retreated to the far side of the stall, where he froze in an alert posture, staring in the direction of the fan. Over the 24 hours, his response to the heater turning on became less and less noticeable, such that after about 12 hours I could not tell from his behavior alone that the heater had kicked on. So this horse habituated to the heater motor noise and vibration.

Well-done, judiciously paced introduction to a wide selection of circumstances is the ideal goal with any horse. With a horse of a naturally mellow temperament, systematic habituation to all sorts of situations can lead to what we call a “bombproof” horse. The horse reaches a point where his initial reaction to a completely new stimulus seems muted compared to that of other horses, and habituation to each successive stimulus or situation may become much more efficient. This is especially important for kids’ horses, police horses, and therapy horses.

As we all know, repeated exposure to nonharmful stimuli does not necessarily lead to habituation. In fact, the opposite response, called sensitization—an increased rather than decreased reaction—can occur. The initial innate response to the particular stimulus could have been fairly neutral, but because of circumstances and associated events, fear and anxiety lead to an increased response. In a training context, the goal would be to introduce the stimulus or situation in a measured way, below the escape -threshold, so as to best facilitate habituation and avoid sensitization.

Should a horse become sensitized, trainers can perform a behavior modification procedure called systematic desensitization to get back to baseline innate reaction and then hopefully get going in the desired direction of habituation, reduced reaction, or no reaction.

The common horse examples of sensitization requiring systematic desensitization are the aversions horses so easily develop to procedures such as clipping, veterinary treatments, and trailer-loading. This skill or art of achieving habituation and avoiding sensitization involves instantly recognizing the subtle signs of comfort vs. fear and simultaneously adjusting the pressure and/or adding positive distractors/reinforcers so as to keep the horse below the threshold for escape behavior or panic.

Learned helplessness refers to a state of significantly reduced response resulting from the animal’s inability to affect its condition or environment. In the context of negative experiences, the -phenomenon results from repeated exposure to unavoidable, inescapable painful or fear-inducing stimuli or situations. The animal essentially shuts down behaviorally, no longer trying to escape or avoid, and enters a state of behavioral depression. Learned helplessness can be situation-specific, but most often in psychology the term learned helplessness is used to describe a generalized “shutdown” or depression and apparent inability to act.

We know a lot about this phenomenon in many animal species, as scientists have used animals as research models for studying human psychopathology (mental and/or behavioral disorders), including the testing of psychopharmacological interventions for anxiety and panic disorders, phobias, and depression. Learned helplessness is a psychopathological condition. In addition to depression, it can lead to behaviors such as unpredictable bizarre “acting out,” self-mutilation, inability to learn and work, stereotypies (repetitive behaviors that serve no function), and health effects such as gastric ulcers and suppressed immune function.

So you are right, I think most of us would agree that learned helplessness is not a good state of welfare for our horses. And although practices deliberately aimed at producing such a state still exist in certain segments of horse training, I like to think these days that fewer and fewer horses are exposed to training with learned helplessness as an intended objective. Such techniques include severely restraining the horse (hog-tying or burying in grain or sand tanks) and then presenting the overwhelming stimulus until the horse submits. In learning science, this “sink or swim” approach is called flooding and is not recommended as a humane training method. The practice known as imprint training, in which a newborn foal is restrained and forced to tolerate/submit to human handling, is essentially intended flooding.

But, unfortunately, many training practices meant to habituate or to desensitize can easily go wrong and result in varying degrees of learned helplessness. These include methods that incorporate injudicious negative reinforcement (application of pressure until the horse yields) without ample positive reinforcement (rewards when the horse does the desired behavior) to maintain motivation and/or that depend heavily on restraint or incorporate punishment.

Many classically trained behaviorists working with horses worry that some popular clinicians and equine educators promote methods that put the less-skilled horse owner or handler at risk of inducing learned helplessness. When trying to use negative reinforcement alone to gain a horse’s compliance with mildly aversive procedures, for instance, one can easily sensitize the horse, essentially teaching escape and avoidance behaviors. This happens a lot! For example, some clinicians teach negative reinforcement techniques to tolerate ear clipping, injections, oral medication administration, etc. This can be done, but it requires extraordinary skill. The timing must be perfect, and if you can’t ride out expected escape behavior, you can very quickly create a wreck. Also, breeds and individual horses within breeds, as has been shown for many species, appear to vary in their ability to handle these methods and inadvertent training mistakes. For example, a Quarter Horse or Standardbred is more likely able to handle negative reinforcement and punishment than the typically more sensitive Thoroughbred or Arabian.

Decades of scientific research document all these learning phenomena that, for the most part, have yet to be introduced to equine education. For example, there are 10 characteristics of habituation, each with very interesting and useful animal training and welfare implications. Behaviorists working with horses recognize these characteristics in their subjects. Hopefully, with increasing interest in learning science, equine educators, trainers, and veterinarians will more fully embrace and teach scientific learning principles. So again, thank you for bringing this up.

[the-real-tc]

Fic Update! Wide River to Cross: Chapter 17

Author’s Note: A big thanks to @katybeth23 and @mlcsped for being my “sounding board” and offering encouragement and timely suggestions.  We return to Lisa’s POV this time, and of course she’s still not in a happy place (duh, because she’s not with Jack, that's why). Hope you enjoy, despite the not-happy Lisa moments.

Chapter 17: 

The Great Divorce Horse

The day’s forecast for Toulon called for sun with some cloudy patches towards afternoon. Lisa was glad for it. Bleak, rainy weather from earlier in the year seemed to have moved on, giving way to more favourable conditions for the grapes the Laportes were expecting to harvest in and around September from Lisa’s property. Dry weather also meant better riding conditions. As Lisa was wont to do in the mornings, she saddled up Indigo for a quick ride. The blue roan was eager for something more than a sedate walk through the open field nearby, so Lisa indulged him in a healthy gallop, urging him on with a hard nudge to his side. She delighted in the rush of the wind against her exposed face as they raced along, her ears filled with the sound of Indigo’s pounding hooves as they beat the turf. Her own pulse quickened with the thrill of the run.

Lisa was at once grateful for those first humans who developed the art of domesticating the wild horse. All that skill and knowledge had trickled down through the ages to this one point in time when she could enjoy this activity. Horse and rider together made an amazing and complementary team whether for work, sport, or recreation. The fact Lisa had dedicated her entire adult life to the pursuit of maintaining strong bloodlines and rearing the best thoroughbreds meant she was part of that continuum, etching her own place in horse-breeding history.

After about a half-hour, Lisa turned back for home.

Home. Is that what this is now? Lisa thought as she came over a slight rise and spotted her property in the distance. I guess it is, if I’m going to be selling Fairfield.

Selling Fairfield was an inevitability. Rachel had put up no resistance to Lisa’s giving it up, and once the sale was complete, her investment in the Avignon venture could proceed. Even though another investor had backed out—which was the reason for the most recent delay—Dan was confident they would be able to find someone else. In their latest conversation, Dan had mentioned he was actively looking for that third potential investor. “…And once we pool our resources, we’ll be looking at having one of the most state-of-the-art horse-breeding facilities in Europe,” he’d boasted.

The memory of that conversation now struck Lisa like a bolt of lightning. Dan’s talk of “pooling resources” had been one of the reasons Jack started suspecting Dan and Lisa were on the road to reconciling whatever differences had parted them.

It still stung on some level that Jack could have even entertained that notion. Was he still so insecure about Dan that he would think she was getting back together with him? Even now, long after that unfortunate event, Lisa wished Jack had asked her, straight up, what was going on. It was true she rarely talked about her work with him because Jack had almost zero interest in high-end, racehorse-breeding. It was a rich man’s world, and Jack preferred to steer clear. That, and any mention of Dan was sure to be a mood-spoiler, regardless of whether it was only in the context of business.

Once Lisa was back inside after caring for Indigo’s post-ride needs, she settled in for a day of catching up on correspondence. Half-a-dozen other horses following Porthos had been tested for specific genetic markers, and Lisa was eager to see if the results had come in from the lab. Already, they had nearly thirty clients with mares interested in the middle-distance champion; Lisa expected that number to double before the breeding season was over.

There were several messages in Lisa’s Inbox vying for attention, but the newest one caught her eye in an instant:

Mackenzie Hutton-Parsons Re: Diva Girl

Lisa clicked on the message link as memories came to mind from the day she gifted Mackenzie and Ian Parsons with the supposedly cursed Andalusian horse.

“Dear Lisa,

               I hope you’re doing well. Remember when you so generously gave Diva Girl to me when I married my darling Ian? You made me promise that if we ever bred her, you wanted her first-born. Well, I have some great news. Diva Girl foaled last night on Ian’s parents’ farm in Montana! It’s a boy! We haven’t thought of a name yet; we thought we’d leave that privilege to you.”

A smile spread across Lisa’s face at the news. Mackenzie’s message went on for several more paragraphs, updating Lisa on how things were going at her small Art Gallery and Ian’s growing graphic design company. It started to read almost like a confessional when Mackenzie mentioned her parents, Ray and June:

“Mom and Dad are also keeping well. They’re thinking of selling their place in the Hamptons and offered it to us first, but I don’t think we’re going to take them up on it. As much as it would be nice to keep it “in the family”, I just don’t see me and Ian hanging around with that crowd. It’s so weird to say it, but that world just seems alien to me now. Once the gossip about my eloping with Ian died down and my parents accepted that I wasn’t marrying some other trust-fund brat, I realized just how much pressure I had been putting on myself to live up to their crazy expectations. Now, I can’t imagine working in that cutthroat, brutal world I left behind when I quit my job with Strickland & Cook.”

Lisa recalled meeting Ray and June Hutton on a few occasions in the company of her own good friends, Elspeth and Riley Penfield. The Penfields were practically an institution in horseracing circles and had owned a few champion racehorses in their day. The last time Lisa saw them was at the Breeders’ Cup two years previous at Santa Anita Park. Mackenzie’s email concluded:

“Anyway, hope to hear from you soon! Ian and I would love to come out and see you all again sometime in the near future, and of course you’ll have to let me know what name you’d like to give Diva Girl’s foal.

Sincerely,

Mackenzie Hutton-Parsons”

Lisa wrote back a quick reply, saying she was of course only kidding when she’d staked a claim on Diva Girl’s first-born, but she was happy to supply Mackenzie with some name suggestions if she was lacking. She hit ‘Send’, planning to continue with reading her emails. Scanning the “subject line” area in the list to prioritize the messages in order of importance, Lisa still hoped to see something from the genetics lab. However, the ‘all caps’ text of one email from her ex-husband was impossible to ignore:

Dan Hartfield

Re: IMPORTANT!! MUST READ AND RESPOND ASAP!!

“Lisa,      Where are we with the sale of Fairfield? You need to get on that, or we’re going to miss our window of opportunity to get things off the ground per the timetable we set. Any more delays, and it’s going to start affecting our bottom line. How am I supposed to find another investor if you can’t even commit? Things are tenuous right now, and I need your support. I needn’t remind you of all the times I supported you, so get this done. Get back to me as soon as you receive this.

-Dan”

 As much as Lisa felt the Avignon venture was a positive step towards maintaining their place in the competitive world of breeding the best racehorses, she was greatly annoyed at Dan’s pushiness. He’d previously claimed he was positive he could find another investor; now he was changing his tune, pinning his inability to bring in someone else on her apparent lack of commitment to the cause. Pulling out of Hudson as one of the main hubs for their breeding operation would elevate their status even higher on the international scene, so this plan—though risky—made a lot of sense. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, thought Lisa. Nevertheless, the hostility she currently felt towards her ex-husband was reaching a critical level. How dare he blame her for his failings?

“Dan,

     As you’re aware, the real estate market is in the toilet right now. If we try to sell Fairfield at present, we’re not going to get its full worth. That’s going to mean another hit to your precious “bottom line”. I think it’s prudent to wait a few more months. The market is bound to swing back in our favour. I don’t want to give the farm away for nothing, so let’s be patient about this. Our timetable will still be on track, so use that time to woo those other investors you were so confident of finding. 

-Lisa”

With a smug smile, she hit the “Send” button. She didn’t know if suggesting her reluctance to sell Fairfield due to unfavourable market prices would make him back off, but appealing to his “bottom line” was sure to make him think twice. Dan could be ruthless when it came to the money side of things, and the thought of not coming out on top in a business transaction tended to upset him.

When they had first met, Lisa had known right away Dan was success-driven. They were similar in that sense, and their love of horses had initially made for a very comfortable and compatible partnership. Dan could be very charming when he was in the process of orchestrating a deal; he had certainly been very charming when they had been getting to know each other romantically. The charm wore off soon enough, as though Dan grew bored of keeping it going once he’d landed her as his wife. Things they should have discussed before tying the knot became problematic. He’d wanted to move to the ‘States; she’d balked at leaving Fairfield, which she considered a perfectly logical base of operations if they were going to make a serious go of breeding thoroughbreds. Dan had thought Hudson to be too “small potatoes” a town for what he envisioned. She’d acquiesced, however reluctantly, concluding such a compromise would be good in the long run for both their fledgling business and their marriage.

I was right about one of those, at least, Lisa now reflected. The business had thrived, and they’d made invaluable contacts and friends by dint of their more cosmopolitan setting in the ‘States, something that wouldn’t have been as easily accomplished in Hudson.

But where they found success in breeding fine racehorses, they couldn’t make a success of their marriage. The business became Dan’s sole focus, and he expected Lisa to keep up. She’d assumed children would come right along with the marriage; when it didn’t happen, Dan wasn’t nearly as supportive as she had hoped he would be. The heartbreak of several miscarriages didn’t evoke in him the kind of compassion she’d expected and wanted, leaving her to feel as if she were alone in her grief.

And then Dad became ill and Mom left, Lisa thought with a sad shake of her head. Taking care of Matthew Stillman had come with its own set of difficulties, but it afforded Lisa a much-needed “time out” from her marriage to Dan. She concluded during those eighteen months of tending to her father that she didn’t miss her husband. His cruel words to her about the possibility of passing Huntington’s on to their children had rung in her ears for a long, painful while.

Dan must have used the lengthy time they were inadvertently separated to re-think his attitude, for when Lisa returned to the USA shortly after Matthew’s passing, he had a special request.

Lisa recalled he’d been particularly solicitous of her. “I have a horse I want you to come see,” Dan had said the morning after she came back. “A yearling. I think you’re going to love her, Lisa.”

From the moment Lisa laid eyes on Diva Girl, she was indeed taken by the gorgeous Andalusian. The ink was barely dry on the ownership papers when the young horse began to present unpredictable behaviors. Despite that, Diva Girl managed to bring home some prizes when she was shown, but nevertheless continued to misbehave for no apparent reason. None of their trainers seemed able to deal with Diva Girl’s temperamental streak. One trainer even threatened to sue Dan and Lisa for damages after being bitten very badly—a complication that worsened an already frustrating situation. Buying the horse was supposed to have been Dan’s way of patching things up; instead, it was having the exact opposite effect on their floundering marriage.

Eventually, Diva Girl was sold to new owners who believed her problems were exaggerated; the proceeds of that sale divided between Dan and Lisa as part of their divorce settlement. Months later, Lisa was picking up the pieces of her life, trying to get Fairfield back into shape, when she received a call from one of the owners.

“We can’t cope with an ill-tempered horse and a divorce at the same time,” the wife had complained to Lisa. “We can’t even agree on a sale price for her, so we’ve decided to just return her and get our money back. That, at least, my soon-to-be ex-husband and I can agree on!”

The last thing Lisa wanted to do at that time was take back the horse; too many bitter memories attached to Diva Girl and the mess of a marriage she wanted to leave behind. Buying her hadn’t made any practical sense from the very beginning, and now that impulse purchase was coming back to haunt them.

Arranging the return meant involving Dan. Lisa was loath to involve her ex-husband, but circumstances dictated otherwise. Dan could probably find another buyer more quickly than she could, and she was sorely in need of the capital to keep Fairfield running.

“Just talk to Dan, darling,” Evelyn had counseled Lisa at the time. “It can’t do any harm, can it? Heaven knows I’m the last one who should be talking about letting pride get in the way… But now is the time to swallow yours. Take back that horse, sell her to someone else, make back the money, and everything will be all right.”

Swallowing her pride meant also shoving back the worst memories of words spoken in anger and malice in the heat of so many terrible moments.

“You think you can do better somewhere else, Lisa? Is that it? Is there someone else in Hudson?!” Dan had accused in what was perhaps their darkest period.

“Of course not!” Lisa had shot back, shocked to the core he could think she would be unfaithful, even if things were strained between them.

“Oh, I don’t know, Lisa. You did spend more than a year there,” Dan had sneered. “I know how men look at you; don’t pretend you don’t notice, either. You think some other man is going to be okay with the fact you’ve got a 50/50 chance of inheriting the same thing that killed your father? That if you have kids, they could inherit it, too? Give it up, Lisa. It’s time you realise you ought to be satisfied you’re with me. You need to quit being obsessed with this motherhood deal, count your lucky stars it didn’t work out, and move on to more important things: like our marriage, and our business!”

Aunt Evelyn had always liked Dan, so she had been disappointed when Lisa announced the divorce. Nevertheless, Evelyn offered a compassionate ear through it all, though she was never able to fully comprehend the reasons, believing her niece was making a terrible mistake.

Lisa hadn’t felt ready to share those particularly awful conversations and deeply cruel words and accusations from Dan’s mouth. Part of that was because Lisa hadn’t been able to talk about her pregnancy losses with anyone else besides Rachel, and partly because she knew Dan liked Evelyn, too. Their marriage might be over, but that didn’t have to poison the rest of the family relationships.

There was no way to avoid the Diva Girl issue, really, so Lisa eventually heeded her aunt’s advice. She had put aside her pride, mustered all her courage, and picked up the phone to call Dan.

“I spoke with Clarissa McNeil. She and Chip are getting a divorce and, uh… want to return Diva Girl. They say they can’t deal with her moods, and neither of them wants to keep her once they’ve gone their separate ways. I don’t have the funds right now to cover the full repayment. I—I need your help, Dan. After all, we bought her together, before the divorce. She belongs to you, too…”

Lisa wasn’t sure how he would react, fearing the worst; thinking he might maliciously choose that moment to blame her for Diva Girl’s issues and declare the horse to be solely her problem. To her surprise, though, Dan seemed to have a reversion to his old charming self.

“I’d be happy to help you, Lisa. We may have our differences, but I know this is important. Don’t worry; we’ll take Diva back. We’ll find another buyer soon, okay? That way, we won’t be out-of-pocket for too long.”

“Thanks. Thank-you, Dan,” Lisa had responded, flushed with genuine gratitude. She was further surprised by Dan’s next words:

“You’re welcome… And Lisa, I know you’ve been getting a little financial help from Evelyn, and that’s great, but don’t be so stubborn that you let Fairfield sink into oblivion. I don’t want you to lose your family business because you didn’t want to ask me for help. We may be divorced now, but there’s no rule that says we can’t be business partners. We were always good at that side of things, weren’t we?”

Truly, they did very well as business partners, and Lisa found herself agreeing to allow Dan to come on as an investor in Fairfield’s operations. Lisa hadn’t initially interpreted his offer as anything other than a gesture of kindness coupled with a calculated risk that had a good chance of paying off. He never entered a business deal without a “What’s-in-it-for-me” clause; Lisa never once considered he might have suggested a partnership with an aim to win her back.

Dan eventually moved his own breeding operations back to Hudson under the name of Brookland Stables, ostensibly to benefit both his “bottom line” and that of Fairfield’s. Years of hard work began to pay off, and Fairfield Stables’ thoroughbreds began to place in national and international races. In all those years, Lisa’s single-minded pursuit of building up Fairfield had precluded any notion of pursuing a serious relationship with someone else; she was determined not to get involved after such a dismal failure with Dan.

All that had changed when she met Jack Bartlett at the Heartland Open House. By all appearances, they were totally incompatible. She was young enough to be his daughter, enjoying a jet-set lifestyle as she courted wealthy horse owners with more money than Jack could ever hope to see. Nevertheless, the spark that flashed between them burst into a flame that burned slowly but surely, warming them both with the realisation this was more than a passing fancy.

To Lisa’s consternation, Dan became weirdly territorial once he realised Lisa was starting something with the rodeo legend. It had all been going along so well; the thriving business kept them both happy; kept things uncomplicated. If Dan thought he was wooing her again, the appearance of Jack threw all those plans into the manure pile.

But that’s all gone now, Lisa now thought with deep regret. Between Dan’s irrational jealousy and Val Stanton’s desperate plays for Jack, Lisa found herself wondering how they’d managed to last for as long as they did.

Maybe it’s the old Diva Girl the ‘Divorce Horse’ curse at work again; it’s following me around, but it ruined me and Jack even before we could say “I do”, Lisa pondered, then scoffed at the notion. While she’d floated the possibility of being cursed in her relationships before, Lisa was too rational and pragmatic an individual to truly buy into it. After all, Mackenzie and Ian Parsons were still happily married; Diva Girl’s behaviors solved by Amy’s astute diagnosis that she just wanted to “be a horse”.

At least it wasn’t a problem horse that got between us, Jack, Lisa mused. We have only ourselves to blame for our breakup. Maybe Dan is right; maybe I am dragging my feet with putting Fairfield on the market… What am I holding on to anymore?

Oh, I sure would love to see your handsome face at my door, Jack. If you still love me, I wish you would take the first step, because I don’t know how to feel anymore about how you rejected me that night at Heartland when I rented that ridiculous hospital bed… I don’t know anymore if you even want to see me, or talk to me, or tell me you’re sorry and you want me to come back… because if you did, Jack, I’d be back in a heartbeat, and I’d keep Fairfield for good.

Chapter 18: Always Something There to Remind Me

[micaramel]

Artist: Simon Starling

Venues: Franco Noero, Torino and Modern Institute, Glasgow

Exhibition Title: A-A’, B-B’

Date: October 5, 2019 – January 11, 2020

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

  Images:

Images courtesy of Franco Noero, Torino and Modern Institute, Glasgow.

Press Release:

Galleria Franco Noero is pleased to announce the opening A-A’, B-B’, the sixth solo exhibition by Simon Starling and the first to be shown in the spaces of Piazza Carignano 2.

This expansive new body of work is composed of an intricate network of objects and images held together by physical transformations, juxtapositions, historical facts, speculation and the artist’s own brand of logic. The exhibition is, in part, inspired by the elaborate 18th century interior of the exhibition space it will occupy on Piazza Carignano. The project is in two parts. An exhibition currently happening at the Modern Institute in Glasgow until the end of October, followed by the one in Piazza Carignano.

The exhibition’s title, A-A’, B-B’, refers to two cuts made approximately two hundred years apart, through two very different objects – Giambattista Tiepolo’s painting The Finding of Moses and a blue Fiat 125 Special, which was a favourite car of Giovanni Agnelli, the former head of the Turin-based manufacturer and an influential Italian industrialist. Starling’s ability to identify connections in seemingly disparate narratives ties the story of the cutting of The Finding of Moses to the Fiat supremo.

The Finding of Moses, painted circa 1736–38, takes a humble biblical story and glamorously restages it in the context of, what appears to be, 17th century courtly splendour with all the accompanying trappings; ladies-in-waiting, halberdiers, dwarfs and sylphlike greyhounds. Even the lowly halberdiers are dressed in noble finery. These aristocratic thoroughbreds inhabit a painting of typically eloquent artificiality and contrivance – a masquerade of sorts. In the early 19th century, Tiepolo’s dramatic painting was cut into two unequal parts, splitting the originally panoramic painting. into a more conventionally centered scene, The Finding of Moses, and the somewhat unconventional A Halberdier in a Landscape. The Finding of Moses was placed with the National Galleries of Scotland, whilst the smaller half, A Halberdier in a Landscape, found itself in Agnelli private collection and later tied permanently to the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli in Torino.

Expanding on this unique division of Tiepolo’s painting, Starling introduces Giovanni Agnelli himself into his ‘masquerade’. Giovanni Agnelli lived a rarefied and glamorous life. Despite his obvious wealth, he sought to maintain a connection with the ordinary people of Turin including his own factory workers. This was manifested not only in his family’s ties to Juventus Football Club but also in his choice of cars. As well as owning a wide range of exclusive, custom-built models, Agnelli was well known for driving a number of standard production vehicles fitted to his own desires while still observing a low profile. He was often seen driving a blue Fiat 125 Special, a standard issue family saloon. The car’s unique number plate, A00000 TO, referring to his nickname L’Avvocato, signalling to the people of the city that he was in town.

For the two-part project, these two masquerades have been conflated in a process of both geographical and material transposition and transmutation. The Scottish portion of the painting, The Finding of Moses, has been reproduced photographically at 1:1 scale at Galleria Franco Noero in Turin – the geographical home of its truncated left side. In turn a photographic reproduction of A Halberdier in a Landscape is shown at the Modern Institute. Further to this geographic transposition, the somewhat brutal logic of the truncated paintings’ two unequal parts will be applied physically to Agnelli’s favoured vehicle, which has been meticulously cut, in proportion to the division of Tiepolo’s painting. The larger front section of the car is exhibited in Glasgow, alongside the reproduction of A Halberdier in a Landscape, while the smaller back section of the car accompanies the larger section of the painting in the Turin exhibition.

To compound ideas around masquerades, the exhibition will present two self-portraits of the artist, simple steel armatures wearing masks made in collaboration with master Noh mask maker Yasuo Miichi. One mask depicts Gianni Agnelli and the other Tiepolo’s Halberdier. Leather-clad casts of the artist’s right hand further define these figures – the work incorporating the mask of Agnelli sees the artist holding the black comedy Trumpets and Raspberries (1974) by Dario Fo, about an exchange of identities between Agnelli and a Fiat factory worker. As Tiepolo’s truncated Halberdier, the artist clutches a halberd and gazes eastwards, emulating the pose from the original painting. Hands will appear again in a series of three daguerreotypes entitled Hand of the Artist’s Father, Hand of the Artist, Hand of the Artist’s Son. These ghostly images, made on mirror-like sheets of silver-plated copper, seem to morph one into the other as time marks and transforms what appears to be the same hand.

Furthermore, Starling links the regal 17th-century setting of Tiepolo’s painting to the production of the late-1960s Fiat through a series of photographs of thoroughbred greyhounds which he made at photo studios housed at the Mirafiori car plant in Turin. These large-scale studios, with their seamless white spaces designed for photographing vehicles, become an oddly fitting setting for these predominantly white, pedigree dogs, the product of centuries of selective breeding and aesthetic refinement.

A-A’, B-B’ continues Starling’s interest in the form of the masquerade previously developed in works such as Project for a Masquerade, Hiroshima, (2010; 2011) and At Twilight (2016), as well as an ongoing interest in the design and manufacturing history of Turin. It also follows threads developed in La Decollazione (2018), which was realised for Manifesta 12 in Palermo and explored the material characteristic of Michelangelo Merisi di Caravaggio’s Maltese masterpiece The Beheading of St. John the Baptist (1608). Both works conflate journeys in both time and space and began life with an interest in painting.

Simon Starling (Epsom, 1967) lives and works in Copenhagen. Starling won the Turner Prize in 2005 and was selected for the Hugo Boss award in 2004. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at international public and private institutions, including: Frac Ile-de-France, Le Plateau, Paris (2019), Musée regional d’art contemporain, Sérignan, France (2017), Japan Society, New York, USA (2016), Experimental El Eco Museum, Mexico City, Mexico (2015), The Art Club of Chicago and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA (2014), Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia (2013), Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany (2013), Tate Britain, London (2013; 2009), Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan (2011), Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, USA (2008), Power Plant, Toronto, Canada (2008), Musée d’art contemporain du Vel-de-Marne, Vitry-sur-Seine France and Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, Berlin, Germany (2009). Among the biennials and international group exhibitions we mention the participation in: 16th Istanbul Biennial (2019), 12th Shanghai Biennial (2018), Manifesta 12, Palermo (2018), 53rd Venice Biennale, Padiglione Scotland (2009), Biennale di Lyon (2007), 8th Sharjah Biennial (2007), 26th Biennial of San Paolo (2004), 50th Venice Biennale (2003).

Link: Simon Starling at Franco Noero and Modern Institute

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from Contemporary Art Daily http://bit.ly/2MJgr2N

[junker-town]

Tiger Woods is back. Here’s why you should be hopeful, excited, and anxious about his latest return.

Tiger Woods makes his latest, and perhaps final, comeback from injury. Does anyone know what to expect from him at the Hero World Challenge?

This past Tuesday on the Golf Channel, a willowy Tiger Woods used his nasally voice to narrate how he had just dissected Augusta National. There were no empty cliches and he used precise detail, describing various conditions of critical shots. He ran through it almost amused at his ability but unsurprised with the execution.

This was, of course, not live but a Golf Channel re-run of the 1997 Masters. It came just an hour or so after a swole Tiger, bursting through a Nike shirt that used to be a baggy poncho in 1997, went into precise detail about how he spent the last few years using golf clubs as a crutch to get out of bed and stayed in his house because going out to dinner required that he perform the strenuous task of sitting. He ran through it all upbeat about finally being “pain-free” but completely unsure of his current ability and the prospects for executing whatever that ability will allow.

“I'm winging this here because I don't know what my body can and can't do yet,” Woods said. “I don't know where I'm at. What I mean by that is I don't know how hard I can hit it, what shots can I play.”

The confidence of that 1997 press conference was just the beginning of an era that became almost easy to predict, even as Tiger kept taking it to new heights. It was a given that the shots would be executed, expected that the ball roll in, and that the wins would keep piling up.

This week’s press conference comes at the start of yet another reboot of a career that’s devolved precipitously in a parade of injury, personal embarrassments, and mostly bad golf on the infrequent occasions it has been played. It’s the beginning of another comeback and Tiger does not know what to expect. And even with a recent pattern of re-injury, no one else does either despite all the pronouncements coming from commentators that range from unhinged enthusiasm to overwhelming dread. No one really knows what to expect, where he’s at, what’s sustainable, and how we even define success with him anymore.

We’re now 20 years into dissecting and overanalyzing every single thing Tiger does, every shot, reaction, and word uttered in all settings. These comebacks, each time, ignite a special breed of the mania and overanalysis. What’s real, what’s hype, and what’s vacuous junk at this point?

This is where I’ll freely admit I’m a jumbled mess. I don’t really have an expectation or feel a specific kind of way. It’s just a bunch of different concurrent feelings bouncing and colliding around a lottery ball hopper. Even with Tiger injured and so often n/a, I’ve still written thousands of posts and words about him during these start-and-stop years. I’ve written takes, recaps, reflections and discussed hypotheses and conspiracy theories with friends. I’ve fed the beast and it’s ranged from the bubbly and enthusiastic to sometimes cruel.

I don’t have a grand stand to make with any kind of certitude or a prognostication to fire out there. At this point, with this comeback, I can’t distill down the jumbled mess — maybe that’s why you came here or what you want to read. If you make me take an educated guess, I suppose I’d say we’re being set up for more disappointment. But we’ll have a better idea in four days after he’s played his Hero World Challenge.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Tiger during Monday’s practice round in the Bahamas.

So with that, here are 10 feelings I’ve got bouncing around after reading about, reflecting on, and considering yet another Tiger comeback.

Excitement

Let’s get to some good stuff off the top. While so many Tiger rounds in recent years have been depressing slogs, these first comeback events are exhilarating. You always hear murmurs and second-hand anecdotes about how great Tiger is looking ahead of these comebacks.

This time around, his peers have made a unanimous presentation that the swing speed is back with Tiger. That’s not been the case in prior comebacks. He’s moving it with the driver and back to bombing it out there off the tee, we’re told. Rickie Fowler said he was hitting it “way by” him at their club in South Florida. Brad Faxon said Tiger hit it past Dustin Johnson, maybe the biggest hitter in the world, half the time during their game last week. DJ then also added that he thought the speed was back in an interview earlier this week.

During a pro-am on Wednesday, Tiger poked one some 340 yards, driving the green of a par-4 and making eagle.

.@TigerWoods drove the green on the 340-yard 7th hole during his pro-am round on Wednesday. Then he made the 20-foot putt for eagle. http://pic.twitter.com/P6nBsM9H2g

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 29, 2017

I’m always a little juiced up and excited to see Tiger in that first event back and that’s amplified a bit this time by the indications that the tee balls are flying in a way they hadn’t returning from prior back surgeries.

It’s exciting that he might be bombing it again but that also generates ...

Fear

With that speed comes aggression and Tiger’s body hasn’t exactly held up well to the violence of the golf swing. He said on Tuesday he’s just swinging full speed for about a month, so, despite all the intense rehab, there’s not much real sustained golf testing here.

When Tiger talks about “winging it” and still trying to figure out what his new body can do, that’s a little unsettling. He said his doctors have told him he’s fully clear to go after it, but “there's still some apprehension going forward and there's no doubt this week is a big step for me to be able to play golf and be explosive and hit shots.”

We’ve got a full library of Tiger wincing, grabbing his back, and even falling to the ground in pain from these past five years. We’ve been told before that the surgery fixed everything and he didn’t need to worry about re-injuring himself, only to then see a comeback last just a few tournaments. His body is a broken-down mess at this point and given all those winces, there will be some fear there watching every swing this week, year, and perhaps for the rest of his career.

There is a distinction here with this surgery, however, and that provides some...

Hope

As Woods said repeatedly, he is “now fused,” which could be a nice little addition to the Tiger vernacular. This surgery was different than his prior microdiscectomies. The announcement that he had fusion surgery back in the spring came with a disclaimer from Tiger friends and confidantes that this was just about being able to try and have a normal life again, not to be a pro golfer.

Tiger admits this fusion has made his swing more stiff, but is adamant that he’s completely pain-free, which he says wasn’t the case in prior comebacks from the other kind of surgeries. The caveat is that we were told he was pain free and back to normal before those comebacks too. But there’s hope that, just by the nature of this being a completely different surgery, the possibility of immediate re-injury is smaller than in the past. Hope that this time is different and “now I’m fused” is the rallying cry to the start of a glorious run of health.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Tiger’s back.

Even if he’s going full speed and healthy, there’s still going to be...

Anxiety

Chipping yips may not take a violent a physical toll but can have you mentally in shambles. Now, Tiger seems to have eradicated whatever it was that made him incapable of performing the very basic task of chipping a golf ball. It was largely concluded that he had the yips, and pros who have had the chipping yips — the ones who were still able to have a career — say they never really go away and are always in there waiting to resurface.

More than any of Tiger’s golf troubles and failures in recent years — the injuries, wildness with a driver, an occasional top or shank — the bout with the chip yips was absolutely the most startling. It was jaw-dropping, incomprehensible, whatever strongest possible term of shock you want to use. He could not play golf.

You tend to put about the chip yips stretch out of your mind because so much of the conversation focuses on his health. But for me, there will still be some anxiety every time he’s got to execute those shots. His short game is probably not going to be very sharp this week. There will be imprecise chips and this Albany course will present a bunch of tight lies around the green. He handled that fine last year and another four-days of yip-free golf will provide some ...

Relief

Even if his game is complete trash, there’s an element of relief just to have Tiger playing competitively again at all. The fusion surgery announcement came with many calls for Tiger to officially retire from competitive golf. I wrote a bit about that nonsense and retirement is often a gray area in golf. You don’t hold a teary press conference to say you’re finished. You slowly phase out, become less competitive, maybe play the senior tour a bit. Telling Tiger to retire was always stupid, but the fusion surgery raised the serious possibility that we’d never see him again.

Just over a month ago at the Presidents Cup, Tiger, in very specific context, allowed that there “definitely” could be a scenario in which he never played competitive golf again. So it’s a relief that we’ve staved off some definitive ending of his career.

It’s not over but the way he’s working back has given me some feelings of ...

Peril

Every name Tiger cited as a practice partner in this past month is some young thoroughbred. He said he played with Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Daniel Berger, and Rickie Fowler. He couldn’t have mixed something in with, I don’t know, Steve Stricker and Rocco Mediate? It seems perilous to me that Tiger, given his ravaged 41-year-old body, immediately started testing himself against all these big-hitting 20-somethings at the very top of the world rankings. Given how precarious his health has been in recent comebacks, trying to keep up with the most aggressive, athletic, big-hitting 20-something studs in the game just seems inadvisable. Work you’re way back to measuring yourself against them. It feels like a perilous approach that hasn’t gone well in the past comebacks.

The 18-man field this week is also comprised of most of those thoroughbreds, who continue to shower the tournament host with ...

Gratitude

Thank you for coming back Tiger, our most benevolent golf sugar daddy.

It’s indisputable that Tiger, and Tiger alone, has taken the game to heights not previously conceived. Whether it’s TV ratings, ticket sales, exorbitant purses, media coverage, all of it was pushed by Tiger. He created the modern PGA Tour environment and while the pro level has a strong young cohort, having Tiger back is good for so many parts of the game. It’s obvious, I don’t need to go into detail again lest we make you ...

Weary

The Tigermania around each comeback is draining, forces you to roll your eyes repeatedly, and makes you skeptical of just about everything you hear and read. We’ve been down this road before and it’s a road that ended abruptly into a pit of sadness. We got the play-by-play of each practice round shot and heard about how good he looked. We got the reports out of his club at South Florida saying he looked fantastic (the notorious worst ball 66 will go down in infamy). We get these empty words to describe how he looks — one account characterized Tiger this week as “relaxed and aggressive” as if that has any real meaning and is useful in understanding what might come next. He or his camp tell us he’s fine, healthy, and good to go only to have him wincing and limping hours later.

It’s a pattern and we are on the exact same route as the previous comebacks, down to the comeback happening at this very same event. It’s kind of startling just how exact the pattern of coverage has been. The burns from the previous hyped comebacks seem completely forgotten.

A Tiger return can have that kind of power — with every quote, praise from another pro, and practice shot, we want to be left in ...

Awe

I’m in awe at how Tiger can sashay right back into competitive golf looking like he won four majors last year and is not the 1199th ranked player in the world. Granted, he’s got 14 majors and is arguably the greatest of all time. But these last four depressing, embarrassing, frustrating years would seem to take some of the strut out even the most accomplished and self-assured legends. Tiger just picks up like nothing happened, twirling about.

The twirl!!! pumped for tomorrow, COME ON @TigerWoods #golf #lovegolf #Tiger http://pic.twitter.com/DkAukWeN14

— Peter Finch (@PeterFinchGolf) November 29, 2017

We’re going to get fist pumps, and mid-flight shouts of “one yard!” and walking putts in and chasing after shots he thinks are flushed. The score on the card at the time won’t matter and his place on the leaderboard won’t matter, or the fact that he’s not done much competitively in years. We’re going to get that saucy strut like nothing has happened.

I am giddy. I am in awe. I am ready for some ...

Nostalgia

This is an obvious one and something even the most ardent Tiger hater probably cannot avoid. I’ve been flooded with nostalgia all week, amplified by the 1997 Masters re-run, part of a Golf Channel marathon of all his major wins.

When I had the ‘97 Masters on, my 3-year-old came into the room. Golf is on a lot and he thinks every golfer is either (or at least asks if that’s) Rickie Fowler, Nick Watney (who was paired with Rickie in the one event I took him to), or Tiger Woods. He’s never seen Tiger play and should have no impression or attachment to him but he’s always asking if that’s him, or if he’s going to see Tiger next, or where is Tiger?

A re-run like this was one of the few occasions where I could actually say, “Yep, that’s him.” So he and his five-year-old brother locked in, watching the ‘97 Masters. They sat entranced for just over five minutes, a long-ass time for them. They’ve clearly got some attraction to watching him more than any other golfer, a toddler’s understanding that this player is different and more exciting.

I want them to be able to see it live. I want to be able to see it live again. Multiple generations should get that reward. When Woods was in his prime, I wouldn’t say I was a Tiger hater, but I definitely did not appreciate what he was doing. I was young and dumb and didn’t understand the context of all he was accomplishing.

It’s been almost 10 years since his last major win and he’s never going to be the world No. 1 that owned the sport. But many of the best sports moments occur when a legend, presumed to be washed, makes one last run. Tiger staying healthy, finding something, would send the sports world into orbit. If you’re a delusional Tiger-stan or deranged Tiger hater that thinks he should be in prison, you should want one last run, something that’s not this injury and leaderboard irrelevance era. These comeback attempts ignite that nostalgia and perhaps detached-from-reality hope that we might get to see an all-time great do it again.