Behind Moritz

I was looking for the scene when we go into the lake for splashing and found this one. Moritz took a view of the lake. I did not understand why we stopped, so I searched for my view. And found out, that Pepe behind us decided to roll.

It looks quiet and peaceful. With SLAP I get an never seen view of us and our hanging around.

Across the street - Moritz and Sabine

I plan to ride Moritz and we are both wearing the GoPro.

Cheerful, at least me

I wanted to visit one of my favorite places: The picnic meadow, and therefor I have to cross a frequented street. When I looked at the videos I saw that I move my head from left to right to increase my field of view and Moritz before me is just moving his ears.

Of course Moritz has no understanding of 'How to cross a street'. He would just move froward if this is the direction he wants to go. I tried it with my G. I drove slowly towards them, but they continued to come closer and closer. The possibility of a crash seems not to exist. I tried to remember how they deal with it among themselves, with and without me: They avoid to bump into another, but when they do it, it has a different meaning. There are no coincidences. Bumping has a meaning.
Besides his flexible ears he has an almost 360 degree field of view. Just in front and behind him there is a blind spot, which is easly to observe with a minimal movenment of the head.

A bike trip with three Ponys and the E-FatBike_1

I made this bike trip a while ago: 31.10.2016.
Again and again I looked partly at the videos, but this material is huge and I surrendered.

But I started again and I have fun.

Before we even started there is one scene from my point of view and Point's.
In the second part Point's ear is following me while closing the gate behind them. Only through looking at it I feel cared and cuddly.

Besides: A triple praise for the Ponys who just stand stil while I go round and do differnt stuff.

Mad dogs or 2 Go Pro's and one mobile phone

I upgraded my equipment.
This time Moritz and Pepe carried a Go Pro. When we passed by the 'mad' dogs I made a video with my mobile phone.

There are four dogs which always bark like this when someone (human or animal) are passing. Sometimes they even bark after the cars. But my Ponys are not interested.

Views - GoPro between the ears and a tape from 'the outside'

I wait for opportunities like this. They are rare and I have to have my techie stuff at hand.

I can't decide which view is 'better'. Both views have surprises which I would not see without knowing the other view. The view from the GoPro wobbles more, of course, but seems to be more lively because of that. But it's more stressful to look at.
There is an interesting part at 45 s. The cow is turning and is she threatening? At 1:52 s another cow starts this kind of movement too.
All in all: The tape from the outside is 'good', but also boring after you see it once. The thrill comes when I look between the ears and I can switch in this different view of life.

The visit in Linz

Time flies and I was sloppy with the documentation!
About the journey to Linz and stuff around I talked about in Friendly Hairy Creatures, but the visit at the Ars Electronica Future Lab is missing.
On our first day Marianne visited us at the trail rider hotel. Marianne met Pepe the first time, but as mentioned in the post he was pretty distracted with the other horses and his own hormones.

Marianne and Pepe

 We did a little walk all together because Marianne wanted to experience his ear movement at first hand.
After this we found a real good working space in the common room of the trail rider hotel. A long table was quickly filled with our stuff: Laptops, Handys, GoPro's and some more. WiFi was great and we started with our try outs.
If I want to know wheater the recording from the GoPro is fine I can check this via Handy. Unfortunately the quality of the record is not very good.
We had two things in mind for our first visit. The fitting of the GoPro and the cameras for the ears. When the GoPro is fixed on the halter between the ears, for Point and Moritz you can get a good impression. The ears are almost completly in the picture, also when they move to the back. But with Pepe all is so small and close together. Therefor Marianne developed a bridge and printed it out. The bridge brings the GoPro just a few centimeters to the back,

Mane and front hair are out of the way and the GoPro is fixed on a snaffle.

The idea for the snaffle comes from the need to fix the antenna.

Antenna as unicorn

Therefor the snaffle is not so solid as the halter out of leather and the GoPro hangs a little loose. The idea was to use Pepe's mane to fix the GoPro. And that meant I had to braid.

Almost artfully

After the drive to the Ars Electronica Center

And is caught after the fall

Basically it is a good solution when is not shaking his head all the time. But it's not a fast solution. I need some time for the braiding.
During the next days I drove to Linz every time. Beside our experiments with the prototyp I wanted to find out how stressable Pepe is. Sounds worst when it was. But is he ok with two hours trail riding (1h one way): Yes. How does he react to a complete new environment: Curious and unexcited.

Pepe im Hänger vor dem Ars Electronica Future Lab

Inside the trailer he is fine and can rest. Once I close the doors of the trailer he is calm, but with open doors the disturbance is high. Besides, we had a lot of attention. On one hand is was a good idea to park in front of the Future Lab and Marianne could go easily in and out and fix things. On the other hand there where a lot of traffic with people who wanted to make a photo or asked us questions.
Last step: Cameras for the ears.

Ohrenkameras und viel Gekabel

About how to fix these little cameras in and on these little ears we thought a lot. It is truly difficult and we found not really a satisfying solution. With the crochet hook Pepe stoped moving his ears. I provoked some situations, but the ears stood more or less in the middle and didn't move any more. The fit wasn't that tight, but as a solution it was out of question. Finally we choose hook and loo fastener which are self-bonding. Marianne searched for solutions with the lenght of the cabels (the ears are moving in a quit long distance) and the display of the cameras. Lot's of small things to take care about. We did it, but we were all a little bit stressed, including Pepe. The last difficulty was to put the camera in the right angel, otherwise you just see the ground.
All in all I'm not convinced with the ear cameras and would like to go for LED's.

Summary:
1. Prototyp: We learned a lot and we changed a lot. To be honest I had to be on site for a much longer time. Such an intensive program with an animal is exhausting and not necessarily crowned with success. We learned a lot and have to implement this.
2. Pepe: It is easy to travel with him even when he is alone, but it is also exhausting for him. A short time later I traveled with all three Ponys to Berlin. When his herd is close he is much calmer. Effort vs benefit? If possible I would try to travel as a herd.
3. Sabine: The responsibility for my animal is huge. Simultaneously to concentrate on the project and play an active part as usual is difficult and energy-sapping. For myself I'm not easy with strange surroundings and this has influence on Pepes wellbeing. There is a fine balance between us, if it is balanced all things come easy. But it's an effort to hold it in balance, I should not forget this.
4. Lesson Learned: Take much more time!

Moritz as Mr GoPro

Moritz is wearing the GoPro between his ears. We walk through our village, than we stay a while in our garden and after that we walk back through the forest.

At the moment we - our research colleagues in Linz and I - try to find out how the hearing of the Ponys works. There are not many studies, but they say that the localization of a noise works with a variance which is greater than 20 degree.
My last try with flicking and calling I don't call serious. My Ponys knew that I didn't want anything from them. For that it seems for me, that you have to consider in what kind of situation the Ponys are. So is it a natural or a artificial situation. Therefor my last post with the three videos show an artificial situation. We were moving and I did something by the side what did not affect them. Ponys are made for walking. For them the world was perfect, because we started to walk and from the trail they knew we were not heading home. If I try to translate this, it means: Variety in a very positive meaning.

For the better understanding: Almost every day since more than 10 years I walk or jog with my Ponys, even if it is just for 15 min. Mostly we are in a set of three (or four with me). That's our daily situation and we know the region in a radius about 10 km pretty well. Means that's their territory. I don't ride, I jog or walk with them. According to the direction I choose they know whether it will be a quick round or a longer hike. My be I imagine that, but my impression is that they start to walk faster and the head goes up, if I have time for a hike.

Out of the entire recording of this day I choose 6 sections. They all have different characteristics:

1. The postman comes

First he observes - up the road, down the road - than he focus. I thing that the kink at the end of Moritz ears gives it all a kind of dramaturgy.

2. A roadblock - that's new

There was a tree felling in our village and therefor the passage was blocked. That's also the reason while I was able to walk through our village during the week. Normally I don't do that because of the trucks. The Ponys don't mind, but the whole situation is to dangerous. Cars and trucks are too fast, and to close while overtaking etc.
A Pony is a flight animal, but as I said that's their territory and therefor they don't spoke when they see new stuff, but instead start to explore. So to see in this video, the hooves carries the ears to the place!

3. A car passes

This situation I always wanted to see through Pony eyes. What happens when a car pass? It is heard before seen and it is not really interesting and instantly unimportant when it drove past.


4. Something will happen

This video was a surprise. The Ponys stood a while tied to the horse trailer. Sometimes I was in the house, but also while on the phone walking through the garden - with Stefan Nitz from MakerLounge. I wanted to know if he needs more datas about Pepe's head.
When I clean the paddock my Ponys knew when I'm close to finish. They group together for getting the halter on. In this video I suspect that they hear in my voice that I'm about to leave. I'm in the house and talk to Alexander. There we are again about intention and which powerful signals we are sending via our body, voice etc.

5. Scanning the hillside

This situation I saw more than once in the videos. When the Pony runs free, occasionally the Ponys stops and 'scans'. When they on the rope, I make the pace, so there is not place for that. When they run free, I have a more natural situation, even though they have to follow the herd. 

6. Finale with a view of Point

With this snippet I want to draw the viewer in our situation. Most times it looks like this ... Besides look at the ears from Point.

After scanning so much video material I'm slightly confused. I'm fusing with the Pony while watching through his ears and occasionally there is this 'alien'. In black clothes with a hoodie, inconspicuously and seems to belong to the group. Fascinating hunch ...

The third one: Pepe

At this video you should look with a portion of humor. I want to gave a look 'behind the scenery', how photos and videos are produced. So, please smile!

Pepe's point of perspective comes from much more below. Head, ears are a lot smaller, therefor he has much more hair ... So the ears are just caught in the camera picture.

As always: Look at the ears.

At the beginning and at the end you see the view from external.

Decision has to be made by Point

This time Point is wearing the GoPro between his ears. All in all he is much more restless with his head than Moritz, but this is his character. Besides he runs free.
The snippet happens at a parting of a ways, all in all 5 different paths are leaving.
In between he is scratching his mouth at his leg.
First he walks in front, than we overtake in his back and he follows.

After seeing this video a lot of people say that the scratching seems like a displacement activity.

First attempt of empathy

What is the issue here?

About the empathy into the world of how a pony sees and perceive.

The ears!
The biker is sensed early and is taken 'between the ears'.
In the second part: Normally that gate is closed. The path you see borders the meadow of the ponies and for that belongs to their territory. What I didn't know - and saw later - there were people.