Anna Blake The first video is of a Mustang, proud and breathtakingly beautiful. He’s a burnished smoky buckskin, with a massive neck and a straight face that shows more strength than refinement. He’s a horse’s horse. Standing in his pen, he is still, his lips tight and his eyes dark. The horse is waiting for … Read more
I’m coming up on the anniversary of moving to my farm twenty-five years ago. It coincides with my dysfunctional affair with technology. My first night here was a full-moon Halloween. I know this because I wrote important dates on my calendar. This means that at the end of one year, I hand-copied it all onto … Read more
“I am not sure why horse people are especially prone to doing things the most difficult way possible, but it’s a habit that dies hard,” she said. Agreed. I hope we’re the worst, but it is an addictive habit. Edgar Rice Burro thinks it’s just our normal condition. Actually, he puts it this way: you’re … Read more
This is my neighborhood. That’s Pikes Peak peering over the horizon, exactly where it was when I bought the farm. It feels like everything else has changed. Now high-tension power poles are cutting an ugly swath across the land from the wind turbines twenty miles east of here. I’ve given up photo-shopping them out. The … Read more
Over the next thirteen years of retirement, Nube napped with friends, ate well, and stood quietly for the farrier. I always knew some undiagnosable thing wasn’t right inside him, but there were more good days than bad. He didn’t worry, and neither did I. We both tried that, and it didn’t work. Equine pros need … Read more
When I got home after school, I walked in the front door, dropped my books, and walked out the back door to see my horse, King. I called him a strawberry roan because I was in love and he was a sorrel with a smattering of white hairs. That day, he wasn’t grazing, which was … Read more
The foal’s name was Sunny, his registered name Sunbrite Sunset. This photo was taken just before we met. The rest is history. Our history. Disclaimer: I’m not talking about death this time, but something much worse: technology. If you are just going to dismiss what I’m about to say because you think you are that … Read more
May I brag? I have that strange career where I travel a lot, see beautiful country as a routine part of my work. I never underestimate the importance of the land when working with horses. Horses depend on their local environment and so do we. The farm girl inside can’t look away, whether it’s the … Read more
And so, Nube [pronounced new-bay] retired in limbo. Undiagnosable. Sometimes, the solution for a long-running struggle is to just stop the fight. No answer is an answer. Let it go because peace was better than the ugly struggle of focusing on what was wrong. Let the anxiety of multiple vet visits stop and the desperate … Read more
For as often as we’ve watched horses run and thought them the most beautiful of all creatures, we should know better. For as often as we have pretended to be horses, you’d think we’d be honest. For as often as we’ve sat in the saddle with a dream and a wide open heart, you think … Read more