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Workshops with Zhenever Sophia Dao

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Barefoot Trimming & Hoof Form & Function Workshops

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As I have written on the BAREFOOT TRIMMING page of this website, barefoot trimming requires a deep knowledge of the form and function of the horse's hoof. (Imagine if your entire body weight and its attendant functions—posture, locomotion, protection of your soft tissues, blood flow, etc.—was dependent on the form and function of one of your fingernails(!)) I work with individuals who care especially much for their horses. Care often translates to curiosity for my clients, and many wish to know more about the art of barefoot trimming and the applied anatomy of the horse. Alternatively, autodidactic (self-taught) barefoot trimmers are often keen to learn more. To groups of 5 or more individuals, I teach three levels of barefoot trimming workshops. Groups of interested persons organize themselves, contact me, and we decide on the duration and level of the workshop:

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To organize one of the barefoot trimming workshops, please contact Zhenevere Sophia Dao via the contact form on this website.

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Three Levels of Workshops

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  1. Caretaker Workshop (2 hours): Basic principles and demonstrations.

  2. Partaker Workshop (4 hours): Basic principles applied. Students bring their own trimming tools.

  3. Autodidacts' Workshop (8 hours): In-depth course for those already trimming their own horses' hooves. Students bring their own trimming tools.

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Equestrian Mythosomatic Movement Workshops

The Equus Series

In other spheres of my life, I have innovated and developed a movement art, of many forms and series, that I call Mythosomatic Movement. This is an art of sensitivity and mythopoetry—stories or theaters of extremely conscious movement that unify one with one's inmost energetic resonance. Animals—and certainly horses—live their sensitivity as their consciousness. It is no coincidence, therefore, that I established these Mythosomatic Movement choreographies and innovations as a creative vocation at the same time that I deepened and extended my work with horses. In fact, I chose these two vocations, horses and Mythosomatic Movement, ultimately for the same reason: to justify, abide, and thrive within my heightened sensitivity—a sensitivity that I am sure I share with many deep lovers of horses. Life is challenging; it is often harsh, bewildering, and injurious. These forms are the ways in which I have made it possible to remain fragile while hopefully palpating some form of inalienable strength and joy.

 

Horses have always been underneath the creation of the Mythosomatic Movements, as if the spirit of the horse, with its seamless blend of Yin and Yang qualities, was a kind of hidden template my creativity was following in order to draw the human closer to the animal. In the horse, I saw a potential for an atmosphere of being that human beings rarely showed me. Equestrian Mythosomatic Movement draws the human being closely toward the sensorium of the horse, where a superabundant sensitivity means a potential for connection and belonging. The Equus Series can, I believe, be a profound bridge to interspecies communication. And it seems to me that at this very late moment in human history, interspecies communication is one of the few noble paths left to us, if we would restore dignity to the experiment of being human.

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Horse caretakers, riders, and trainers organize themselves into groups of 5 persons or more and contact me, via the CONTACT form on this website, with a request for an Equestrian Mythosomatic Workshop. Alternatively, Equestrian Mythosomatic Workshops are announced on the TOWARD ETERNITY newsletter, to which one can subscribe by filling out the SUBSCRIBE TO ZHENEVERE'S MAILING LIST & NEWSLETTER form below.

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