Edgar Rice Burro on Covid-19 and Physical Distancing (on World Donkey Day)
Does Covid-19 impact my herd? The email asked, "I wonder if you've noticed the quieter world in your horses?...
Photo & Poem: Slap Hands
Sit next to Jack, she said. Mother’s youngest brother on leave from the Army at our kitchen table. He pinched...
It Could Be Worse. You Could Be Married to Me.
"Honey, when you're in town will you pick something up for me?" I don't quite wait for the answer. "Great,...
Photo & Poem: Aged-Out
Aged-out with his horse, he said, like a sell-by date in the grocery store. We all stop riding, just a...
How to Be a Safe Anchor for Your Horse
For us long-timers, if we've been lucky, it feels like we're always standing in a ghost herd. They're good company...
Photo & Poem: Breakout
Our horses are not young, neither are we. We negotiate with winter, bartering against the wind that our horses...
A Calming Signal Way of Being
I have to credit a decent mid-life crisis for changing the course of my horse life. Not that I...
Photo & Poem: Limbo
As if struck by lightning, the horse died; a clean and horrible quiet. No diagnosis, no cure, no negotiation....
Affirmative Training and Trust During an Emergency
You started with horses the same way most of us were taught. You tried to show them who's boss,...
Photo & Poem: Home Farm
The mare stands square, extending her neck, surveying the pond marsh. Are the coyotes on the move? She takes three...
Horses and Common Sense.
Not long after I moved to the farm, a friend brought her two young kids out. We all walked the...
Photo & Poem: Soundness
Centering myself behind the horse as he walks away, bent forward with my hands on my knees, staring his hips...
Training Advice for Horses in the Spring
Photo & Poem: Body Voice
One horse flicks his ear, still grazing, another pauses his jaw, his tail still amid flies. The mare lifts her...
Horsewoman, A Computer Can Smell Your Fear…
We are horsewomen. We muck 13,505 pounds of manure a year... per horse, and you know we don't own...
Photo and Poem: Spring Thaw
The air hung heavy, strangely moist for a desert prairie. Dense fog as rare as raindrops. The ice on...
Let Perfection Go. Try Consistency.
Here is a shortlist of the things horses don't understand: Sarcasm. Exploitation. Shaming. Guilt. Drama. These are human behaviors that...
Photo & Poem: Two Women
I had the window seat on an early morning flight to Tucson. In the row ahead were two women. I...
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