This new earth, the lands of the new year, are uncharted territory. There is no map, no guideposts or signs, no compass save the North Star and the Sacred Directions. We enter upon this journey with our wits, and it is too often a solitary path.
But we rely too much on human notions are guides. Our animal relatives have much to teach us, if only we humble ourselves to learn. The Indian horse is, as the description below puts it, a brother, one who accompanies us to war and on the hunt, with us at work or pleasure or for simple companionship. And in these early bitter days, his presence is a gift: on a new year’s road, a friend with whom to walk it.
We are horse people, as the outside world would put it. We would not put it that way; they are simply, besides being part of our way of life, our relatives. They depend on us to ensure their good health and survival, and in return, they give us the kind of friendship rarely found among human relations.
We are down to two now, from a high of six that included a boarder horse and two rescues. One of our current horses, Miskwaki, was among those rescues; the other, Miika, we rescued a year and a half ago after we lost Miskwaki’s sister to cancer. Both came from situations of extreme isolation and deprivation, and both have blossomed into happy, healthy, well-rounded creatures.
“Well-rounded” doesn’t refer only to their psyches.
When I say that they served as the models for today’s featured work, I’m half-serious, although this piece’s roots go back much farther. This is Wings’s newest work, completed only a couple of days before Christmas, but it’s wrought in a much older style; years ago, he had created a number of these little horses over the course of some years. He found one recently, only partially complete, and set it out on his workbench as inspiration. This one emerged, new and full-born, from a clean sheet of silver. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
Indian Horse Necklace
The Indian horse is a brother, fellow warrior, hunter, companion, and friend. Wings honors its brave spirit, and those of all the Indian horses who have claimed us, with this one-of-a-kind necklace manifest in the wild pony’s iconic form and shape. Drawn and saw-cut wholly freehand out of solid sterling silver, its luxuriant mane flows into a forelock dancing above a deep eye and a penetrating gaze. Its sturdy round body extends into solid legs and short hooves, and arches into a long flowing tail. Small stamps delineate the major muscles of legs, body, neck, and face, while a single broken arrow accents its left flank: a sign, perhaps, of hope that its warrior days are done and peace has returned to this Indigenous land. He hangs from a hand-made central bale of hammered sterling silver, suspended from a long, highly-polished strand of sterling silver round beads. Pendant hangs 1-5/8″ high including bail (1-5/8″ long without) by 2.25″ across at the widest point; bail is 1/4″ long by 7/16″ across at the widest point; bead strand hangs 18.5″ long, including findings (all dimensions approximate). Close-up view of pendant shown below.
Sterling silver
$725 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Both our current horses are decidedly well-fed now; both fully capable of making mischief. But this one makes me think of my own rescued mustang, lost more than two years ago to a cancer-induced colic, a spirit off the winter named Ice. He appeared a few days before Christmas in 2014, seemingly out of nowhere, apparently having made his way down from the mountain; just before sunset on Christmas Eve, he crossed through a downed section of fence onto our land and stood, waiting. Starved, dehydrated, abandoned (and, as we would eventually learn, having been badly abused and already harboring the tumor that would eventually take his life, and the sand impacted with it), he allowed me to hand-feed him, and we put out water.
He stayed. He had found his herd, and his home.
Ice was, despite all his history of trauma, one of those fiercely intelligent creatures who loved hamming it up with his herd. He was playful, yes, and full of energy, but his eyes always held that spark of mischief, ready at a moment’s notice to find shenanigans worth his time and trouble.
He was a mustang, a genuine one, with a high-stepping gait and a proud stance, and he was an Indian horse to the very bone.
He is with us only in spirit now, but in the winter especially, I still feel his presence, invisible but here all the same: one a new year’s road, a friend with whom to walk it.
~ Aji
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