The Forge

The Forge offers private sessions and three-day retreats for adults in an isolated rural location in England. Its website offered the opportunity to gain “a deeper insight and understanding of ourselves and of horses...through self-reflection, learning to be in the present moment, and quietening the mind” (paraphrased text).

With its claim to an existence of an embodied “shared language” which bridged the species divide, and through its techniques of “learning to be in the present moment” and “quietening the mind”, The Forge’s “felt sense” methodology addressed my interest in "critical anthropomrophism" as a phenomenological disciplining of attention when learning about animals.

Clean Communication

I'm exploring the embodied, empathetic and sensory method of "the felt sense" at The Forge, and its epistemological and methodological implications.

Uncertainty and "affected perspectives" in equine epistemology

The significance of "herd days" in learning what matters to horses, and "politeness" in horse pedagogies.

Prey animal ontologies

How much work does the concept of the "prey animal" do in equine-assisted wellbeing practices? What are its moral contours?

Credit: Erin, The Forge