Guitar & Horses: A Letter from Edward Kimball

It’s our May Fund Drive, and during this time we love to share inspiring stories. This is one of our recent favorites, brought to us by ACG Community Ensemble member Edward Kimball. If you’d like to support our May Fund Drive, you can Donate Online Here

 

Every Tuesday morning I go out to a place called Healing With Horses Ranch in Manor, TX.  HWHR helps children and adults with a wide variety of physical and emotional afflictions.  Its services are free for military veterans like me, and the rest pay fees.  

Along with ACG, visiting HWHR is what I've been doing to cope with my chronic ankle pain & surgery recovery, hearing disability and struggles with major depressive disorder.  We all must figure out ways to compensate for the genetic hand we've been dealt.

Because of my previous experience with horses, my instructors steered me into more refined aspects of horsemanship. Sort of like the difference between the folk-song strumming most of us did "back in the day," and learning classical guitar. 

I've been kicked, bitten, bucked off and fallen with a horse. I’ve trained a few, and ended up being trained by them.  Obviously I love horses.  Most of them read human emotions better than humans.  

For some strange reason I don't understand, while at home working on solo pieces on guitar, thinking about phrasing, my mind will wander, sometimes reflecting on things instructors said to me that week about handling horses.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that the subtle details of classical guitar, and the nuances of horsemanship, have much in common.  

I’ve been going to Healing With Horses Ranch since 2017. I’ve been involved with Austin Classical Guitar since 2010. To cut to the chase, as they say, the experiences have begun to meld.  

From my two instructors at HWHR, Crystal & Libby, I’ve been taught "nuance," subtle positioning of body parts while riding, as well as connecting and communicating with the horse while on the ground. Meanwhile, as a member of ACG Community Guitarist Ensembles, I’ve been learning "nuance" from Carlos, Eric, and now Tony, as well as fellow members of our groups.  

This picture of “Mr. Dude” and me was taken at our last Vet's program of the fall season. I got to do what I’d wanted to do most: play guitar for the horse I'd been working with.  

Having had a hearing disability from birth, I envy horses' ears.  We may never know what a guitar sounds like to a horse, but I like to believe that something was going on in his mind as I was doing my best to play for him.  It’s quite possible he was totally bored and felt like just standing there…nothing else to do!

 - Edward Kimball

Thank you so much Edward! Since we received the marvelous letter and photograph above, Edward has continued his artistic connection to HWHR by creating the beautiful video below for his friend “Patience,” also a client at HWHR, as part of the ACG GIVE project in April. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYGR0zihrGA