So still the herd, taking rest with soft flank to muscled shoulder, as the light shifts cooler. One nose lifts to the scent of rain coming on the breeze, the slow boil of clouds forming dark to thunder. Beyond the tree line, a slow crush of fir needles, padded footfalls and hushed birdsong. You cannot feel the … 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
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
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
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
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
The horse’s eye curtained by his forelock, his ear turns to stare back as we walk in matched strides, left hoof and left foot lift ahead, our weights land and shift to the right, part of us on solid ground, part swinging just above. Don’t think; take no notice that will alter the rhythm … Read more
Restless eyes behind closed lids, the early hours lay flat, dull to these scurrying thoughts. Rise to use the bathroom and the dogs do not stir. Pull on a barn coat and muck boots to go out and walk the farm. Keep to open ground, small steps feel for uneven earth, head dropped back … Read more
So convinced of her isolation, she had become its primary cause. So exhausted to chance, she had retreated to a fine-tuned invisibility. So work- hardened by test, she had proven she could carry the pain. Better to be alone than a fool. Held apart so cold lack seemed a choice instead of a failure. … Read more
“Curiosity is a sign of courage,” she said, hushing my correction. Bright praise for my colt chasing her dog along a fence line. That colt grew old and died, funeral respect gladly paid to a fine mentor, and now that mortality hangs around my ankles, I’ve grown stubborn, looking both ways before ranting, not … Read more