Shatner Rules

the event all over the world, an event that was topped off with a fantastic performance by Sheryl Crow. All the money we raise goes to my favorite charities, and to advance the science of hippotherapy.
    Hippotherapy is a method of treating mental and physical handicaps with the sensory effects provided by interaction with horses. Often, it involves introducing mentally handicapped children to the wonders of the animal, wonders that elicit emotional responses from kids who don’t respond to traditional therapy.
    You wouldn’t believe the transformation that takes place when some of these kids are placed atop an animal. Lately, Elizabeth has been spearheading an effort to bring hippotherapy to wounded veterans of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Horses bring out the best in people, and they certainly bring out the best in me.
    Also, if you are lucky enough to attend one of my Hollywood Charity Horse Shows, you will see me in a cowboy hat and boots. And you’ll see me on horseback, competing in the reining events.
    Reining is like figure skating on horseback, but without all the sequins. Although sometimes there are sequins—there’s nothing wrong with being a little showy in the horse world. Reining is a competition where a horseman shows his skill in maneuvering the horse, doing what the cowboys did when driving cattle and herding calves.
    Calves move fast, and they might dart to the right or to the left, so the cowboy might have to turn 180 degrees in either direction very fast on his horse. Figure skating has the double axel and the rocker foxtrot, while reining has the sliding stop, the rollback, the fast and slow circles, the change of leads. I practice these patterns every day when I’m riding, and I’ve become one of the top amateur reiners in the country.
    Now, many actors have hobbies that take them out of the world of acting, and hobbies that have a tendency to take over their lives. My old friend and mentor Edward G. Robinson had a massive collection of abstract and impressionist art. Leonard Nimoy has all but abandoned acting for photography. Half the vehicles on the road in the city of Burbank belong to Jay Leno. (And Jay—can you put some turn signals on that Stanley Steamer? You nearly ran me off Ventura Boulevard the other day, damnit!)
    Horseback riding won’t take over acting, but to me, riding a horse is just like acting. As an actor, you need to forget your techniques; they must become second nature. The same thing goes for riding: The techniques of balance, placement of feet, where your hands are, where your mind-set is—it all vanishes when you enter the realm of horse riding. Like acting, horse riding is about seamless communication.
    As an actor, if you know the words intrinsically, they’re part of you. Once I’m up and going in a scene, I am no longer thinking of the words; I’ve got the words. You have to ride with this state of complete unity with the horse. You’re into that Zen state of mind, body, and purpose. I have felt on numerous occasions that the horse’s head and legs are my head and legs. I merely have to think and the horse does.
    Would I give up acting to be with the horses full time? Of course not. I would never want horses to become my job. That would take the fun out of it.
    And honestly, acting pays for the horses.
RULE: Being Eighty Means That You Can Abruptly Change the Subject While Speaking, and People Will Follow
    While I’m taking advantage of my elder statesman free rein, let’s talk about the real rain. And how much acid is in it.
    My own mortality is something that keeps me awake at night, but so does the mortality of this planet.
    Heavy? Okay. But not as heavy as the destruction of the world.
    When I first got concerned about the environment, there was no jumping on the Hollywood bandwagon. Back then, the bandwagon was a one-seater, and I felt like the only one along for the ride. I read Rachel Carson’s
Silent Spring
—the book that all but launched the modern American environmental movement—back in 1962, and it scared the living hell out of me. It should scare the living hell out of you, too. Especially those of you younger than eighty—you’re gonna be stuck with this mess on Planet Earth longer than I will be.
    Back in 1962, I would even try to bring up the environment in interviews, only to have reporters give me that “this is never going into my piece” look. I often felt like my character in the classic
Twilight Zone
episode