Jinba Ittai

When they are running, horses take one breath perfectly in time with one stride. At a canter and gallop horses do not breathe by expanding and contracting their chest - all air movement comes from movement of the legs and diaphragm. In other words, the act of running actually moves the air in and out of the lungs.

From the traffic light at the bottom of the grade, the highway runs straight and flat five miles across the desert floor to where it disappears into the Interstate. If I catch the green light coming off the hill, I can carry my speed onto the flat. It's smooth and usually lightly traveled, but there's also enough tamarisk trees and slight hills to give the CHP a place to hide. Discretion is the better part of not getting a ticket in 20 years.

I hit the red light just before the freeway. They added this signal when they widened and re-paved the highway - it can be a pain if you get behind a truck on the on-ramp. I'm first in line though, and when the light changes I quickly run up through the gears. The highway joins the interstate at right angles, so I can see down the 10 for over a mile. There's a gap in the stream of semi trucks, and I eyeball a line to it.

The on-ramp is a 90 degree turn, but it's a wide, long curve, perfectly banked; a rarity in California. The Miata has the bit in her teeth and as we come through the curve I slacken the reins, let her have her head. She responds with a surge forward, settling deeper into the curve. The needle on the tach touches 4, and she hits her stride; I can feel her through the steering wheel, the pedal, the seat. I slide seamlessly into the light traffic, and I think to myself, why on earth would I want a car that drives itself?

Jinba-Ittai — meaning oneness between horse and rider - is taken from the Japanese ritual of Yabusame, the art of Japanese mounted archery. In Yabusame, the archer must hit three targets with three arrows, while riding at a full gallop. Success depends not on the skill of the archer/rider alone, or only that of the horse. It requires that the two work as one, distinct individuals but bound together in purpose, in harmony.