A former horse-lover, I hesitated to see Cavalia, the horse and acrobat spectacular running through January in San Francisco. The last time I was close to a horse, I was carted away, strapped to a body board.
Before my horse accident, I fancied myself a horse whisperer. I took riding lessons and workshops in horse communication. Then I got thrown off. Maybe I was just too tall, had too high a center of gravity, I consoled myself. In reality, I just sucked as a rider.
Horses became unpredictable demons with wild eyes that could toss a rider and then step on them. My neck injury was so bad that we worried about me being a quadripelegic until my scans came back and I was unstrapped from the body board. I ended up with a bad concussion and chronic neck pain.
I got tickets to Cavalia hoping the magic and beauty of the show would be the antidote to my recent horse-hating ways. I also thought it would be a great Christmas outing to do with my daughter. We were not let down.
While we climbed up to our seats, toy horses illuminated by spotlights on the sandy clay stage greeted the audience. The show opened like any good act—holding back the good stuff until you really, really wanted it, taking us through an audience-participation Q&A about Cavalia horse facts. The next teaser was a film of a horse giving birth to a foal who hesitatingly stands and takes its first steps. We really wanted to see horses at that point.
The curtain finally came up to reveal an act with a live sheet of rain in the middle of the stage. Later, the sheet of rain would be used as a projection screen for images of white horses.
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