A documentary film about the affiliative behaviour that eliminates the concept of dominance in equine social life.
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Love, in all its varied forms – between parents, sons and daughters, between playmates, friends or sexual partners – isn’t a human prerogative. Horses do it too. In fact, their lives depend on it, for the affection that draws them together protects them from predators. They can’t live alone, and become sick with anxiety if we force them to do so.

Yet scientific investigation has concentrated on the aggression that drives them apart, often creating unnatural competition to stimulate fighting and promoting the belief that horses dominate others through aggression. Inevitably, this leads people to try to control horses by inflicting pressure and pain on them.

NOTES ABOUT HORSES (52 mins.) reveals that what shapes the lives and orders the movements of wild horses is not aggression but affection. The observation of the intimacies of feral pottokas in Extremadura prompts reflections on the parallels with our own affections. Do horses seek togetherness to soothe and comfort their insecurities? Do they get jealous, and why? Does passion make them lose their heads? Are they faithful to their partners? How do their bonds nourish individual growth and development to produce a harmonious society in which no-one imposes on others, but the path to self-realization is open to all?

We have a lot to learn from horses.
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This film was financed by the contributors to our crowdfunding campaign on goteo.org
https://en.goteo.org/project/notas-sobre-caballos-por-lucy-rees
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Written and narrated by ethologist and writer Lucy Rees www.lucyrees.com
Filmed and edited by documentary filmmaker Alla Shadrova www.allashadrova.com