Becoming Horse Woman is now available on Amazon for purchase. It contains a detailed look at Horse Woman, including all performances and walks, poetry and discussion on the project. Find out more by following the link:
Tag Archives: Walking
Walk 8 – Finding Horses
Isabella Bird – (1831 – 1904)
Isabella Bird, was born at Boroughbridge Hall, North Yorkshire, on 15th October 1831. The eldest daughter of the clergyman, Ernest Bird, Isabella was educated at home my her mother, Dora (Lawson) Bird.
In her youth Isabella suffered from poor health. As one historian has pointed out, this was not uncommon “among intelligent, high-spirited girls of the period, who were thwarted by lack of formal education and oppressed by constrictive social conventions.” Eventually a doctor suggested to Ernest Bird that his daughter’s health would be helped by taking a long sea voyage.
In 1854 Isabella journeyed to America. The trip was a great success and invigorated by her experiences, she published An Englishwoman in America (1856). After the death of her father, Isabella Bird moved to Edinburgh with her mother and younger sister, Henrietta Bird. Over the next few years Isabella made several trips to the Outer Hebrides and wrote several articles in magazines such as the Quarterly Review about the plight of the crofters. Later she used of the royalties from her writing to help Scottish crofters to emigrate to the United States.
Isabella Bird’s poor health returned and in 1872 she decided to travel to Australia. Isabella then moved on to Hawaii where she climbed an active volcano. Details of this trip appeared in the book The Hawaiian Archipelago. In 1873 Isabella Bird arrived back in the United States. She visited Colorado and after meeting Jim Nugent, a mountain man, decided to explore the Rocky Mountains. With the help of Nugent she climbed Long’s Peak.
Nugent fell in love with Isabella Bird but she rejected his advances. As she told her sister, Henrietta Bird, in a letter she sent while in America: “He is a man any woman might love, but no sane woman would marry.” Nugent was later to be murdered. Before he died Nugent claimed he had been shot because he refused to sell his squatter’s land to Lord Dunraven.
Bird also published the following books throughour her life, the trips she made were on horseback:
On Horseback in Hawaii – 1873
A Lady’s Ride in the Rockies – 1873
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan – 1878
Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan – 1890
Among the Tibetans – 1893
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWbirdbishop.htm
http://www.classictravelbooks.com/authors/bird.htm
Horse Prints
Performance Walking Documenation – Suffolk to Norfolk, using FujiFilm 14mp Digital Camera.
Horse Woman – The Walks
I found the book ‘The Bridleways of Britain’ a few weeks ago and have decided to use it as a guide to complete a series of performance walks. Although I have started Horse Woman this will simply assist in controlling the exercise which I believe it needs. Prior to this I have simply chosen walks that were close to where I was living or staying, using this book will push me to visit a number of areas across Britain. The walks are chosen for the book as they have been highly recommended by horse riders who often own their own land and horses. I am aware that this may take some time but I feel that the project now has an aim, it will also be an interesting investigation into performance and endurance (through both the projects commitment and also the length of some of the walks).
Alongside these walks, performances are being made indoors such as in gallery spaces as well as this, the text for the story continues to be developed with the aim of becoming a book. One of the works created from the story of Horse Woman will be performed at Hatch:Scratch, Leicester, Sunday June 17th from 6pm.
Contemplating Walking as Performance
Martina Vermorel 