Anna Blake Bear with me, please. I miss my dogs, one in particular. I’m in Dunedin, and he’s 12,620 km away. It sounds even farther in Newzealandish, doesn’t it? It’s National Pet Day back home, I know he is keeping an eye on the door. The Dude Rancher takes good and kind care of the dogs while I’m … Read more
Horse Trailer Conversation She takes me from the herd, pulling me to the box. Her hand is thick, there is no air in her feet. I want to run, fast and far, instead dragging my hooves, looking away. No, stand and fight, she says with dread in her spine. Standing next to the box makes … Read more
“Anna, do you have any articles that touch on behavioral euthanasia?” It’s from a question about a rescue horse in trouble. Initially, things went well enough but now there is unusual pasture activity, unprovoked aggression toward other horses, and the issues continue to escalate. A horrible fit of extreme bucking resulted in the rider … Read more
You’ve landed in a place you don’t belong, the cat let me know, as she howled at you on the wrong side of the window sill, trees and sky just a transparent wall away. A big squawk for a small feathered thing. I excused the cat so we could be alone. Turning your dark … Read more
It was the first day of a Calming Signals clinic. I was talking to a group of people about leading from behind and my demo horse stood at the end of my rope, a gelding as bright as a penny. It felt like he was familiar to the people watching and they wanted to see … Read more
Across the long diagonal to the west corner of the dry lot, he’s on the far side of the herd, barely moving as he shifts weight from one hoof to the other, his neck stretched long, muzzle to the sandy ground. He pretends to eat what’s not there, so he can watch me softly. He … Read more
My gray mare calming signals included squinty eyes, a dry mouth, and a weird chicken-like movement with my neck and head. Every now and then one of my naked feet would kick out. Breathing? Not noticeably. If there is a medical visit I like even less than a mammogram, it’s going to the dermatologist. I … Read more
Rusty coat, a spiky mane, and a spotted blanket, he would have been a firecracker of a colt, plain to see who he once was. After coming here, he took the risk, slowly lowering to the ground, his tense head high. Even longer to let lie his wary reluctance to touch; he kept himself … Read more
This is my fence panel. I lost count of the other’s just like it, eight, I think. I find them this way, the top rail bent practically in half, edges collapsed. I hear no loud noises, there are no lumps or marks, I just come out to find one or two of the draft-cross geldings … Read more
Nature swats at the pasty insects fussing with watch stems, adjusting mechanical time. Taking one hour, exactly sixty minutes, from one edge of a day and self-importantly tacking it to the other, a legal act lost on horses, who keep time by the feel of the soil, bucking wild at the scent of green … Read more