Drawn like magnets, humans want to be near animals so badly. We can’t help ourselves, but we are a little scary. Animals should look at us cautiously. Consider their wry skepticism an honest survival instinct. We have only good intentions, but our love is red hot and we start young. Haven’t we all seen toddlers … Read more
When people talk about the romance of farming, I think they’ve watched too much TV and read too little Steinbeck. I grew up in a dictatorship. It was a farm in Minnesota ruled by my father. People don’t get rich farming. Decisions were made for our survival, not the animals. We ate what we raised. … Read more
In fifth grade, they pulled us out of class for hearing tests. They clamped skinny black headphones on us and told us to raise our hands when we heard sounds. Then I sat there waiting to hear for a long time. Long enough that I knew I wasn’t hearing. And I wasn’t the kid who … 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
I had a friend who used to write me little vignettes about the antics of her and her horse at their self-care boarding barn. I always looked forward to each installation. Usually, they were hen-cackling funny, but this one took a bittersweet turn: “This morning at the stables, someone asked my opinion. About 20 seconds … Read more