On the Hoof

  Horses have accompanied humans throughout history; they are part of our life and our memory. This image is from Chauvet Cave and is thought to be a drawing done 30,000 years ago. When two Kingsmead horses stepped out of a horsebox last month at the Bethlem Royal Hospital it might have been the first time in seventy-five years that hooves had trodden that turf.  Last week, John and I revisited the archive at the Bethlem Museum of the Mind to try to discover the date as precisely as we could. The archivist had kindly retrieved file HCQ-06 from the strongroom so that we could peruse the minutes of the Farm and Garden Committee from 1951 to 1975 (Bethlem).  As soon as we opened the manila folder the words from the very first page, dated December 1950, leapt out to meet our eyes. Item (f) “arrangements [to] be made for the old brown mare to be humanely slaughtered at the farm in the presence of the farm foreman.” A flush of emotion swept over us both at the stark dignit...

I walked around a corner into the main square of the stable yard and headed down one side and saw Nechta standing at the bar to her box facing me. She was looking at me, and as I approached she lowered her head, putting one front leg forward, then the other. Then she put her muzzle on one knee, and then on the other. I bent down to look and noticed some cuts just above the fetlock. I gently stroked down her left foreleg, holding my hand on her knee for a moment. I noticed her lips touch the top of my head and then my shoulder before moving to the nape of my neck. I looked up and saw that she had raised her head high and was looking across the yard. I stood next to her close to her shoulder and looked where she was looking across the corrals to the middle of the row of boxes at the top of the square, where a couple of ponies were standing at their stable doors. She showed white around her eye, as if in fear, then turned and withdrew into the shadow at the back of her box.  The ...

  The 21st century is already witnessing a notable change in the way we use horses as our society changes and patriarchy gives way to new forms of families, social bonds and institutions. We are living in a time of radical transition, and we have the opportunity to participate in the invention of what is to come. I have a dream which is part of a new way of being with horses which I believe to be valuable, sustainable and ethical.  A first step to realising the dream is taking shape: to take two horses to the Bethlem Royal psychiatric hospital, where occupational therapists and some of their patients will be waiting to greet us. In a simple, sheltered space that is close to a walled garden and bordered by hedges and trees, we will bring something real – the possibility of equines to reignite the trust, consent and cohesion that is foundational to a social bond. Facilitated equine encounters uses the structure of the psychoanalytic discourse which allows us to hold humans and h...

  Where nothing happens, twice – this phrase was coined by Vivian Mercier in the Irish Times , 18 February 1956, when he reviewed Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot . The characters Estragon, Vladimir, Pozzo and Lucky have been reenacting these two moments of nothing in countless repetitions since Beckett finished writing them in January 1949. The truly astonishing power of the play led San Francisco Actors' Workshop director Herbert Blau to take it to the San Quentin prison in November 1957. The idea that the play (in which nothing happens twice) could be transformative had now crossed the Atlantic. Rick Cluchey, an inmate at the prison, was serving a life sentence when he heard it being performed over the loudspeaker system. The experience had such an effect on him that he went on to form a drama group with other inmates to stage the play. He eventually won a chance for parole and met Beckett. He continued this friendship and pursued a life anew in the arts. The story ...

One idea could be to introduce a small herd (four to begin with) of Exmoor ponies under the aegis of “conservation grazing.” The perimeter of the grounds is already securely fenced, and by introducing a cattle grid at the entrance ponies would be prevented from from roaming––New Forest-like––onto the surrounding roads. The central set of humans are effectively contained in their particular buildings much of the time, and the gardens linked to wards are already protected by high fences. In this space the people mostly belong to the buildings, which allows you to imagine the ponies safely enjoying access to most of the grounds, especially the meadows that form a beautiful boundary to three sides of the institution.  The presence of the ponies could be used to emphasise the relationship of the humans to their environment as well as to each other. The ponies could provide a reference point around which relationships could be re-articulated. Their presence could become a focal...

  Saturday 1 June, 2024, I walked around the meadows that surround the Bethlem Royal Hospital with a colleague who works there now. We caught a bus from Crystal Palace which wound through the back streets of Beckenham and Bromley before finally dropping us off at the northeast corner of the site, a bit of a stretch from the main gate. After about five minutes’ walking, we found what seemed to be an entrance, where a gap between a small set of maisonettes revealed a gate and pathway through trees that beckoned to us. But the gate was locked fast, the grounds were impenetrable, and the fence was unscalable. We resumed our route along the road to find the entrance to the grounds, then my friend led the way around the bottom meadow, past beautiful trees, a large house now boarded up and padlocked, and up to a desolate site that once housed an IAPT operation. We stuck to the fence line, which provided a secure boundary all the way around, and passed no one. As we approached the southwes...