Last week I raved about my beautiful but desolate riding arena at the front of my little farm. My other favorite place is the pond at the very back of my farm. Waterfront property on the high desert prairie of Colorado was a major selling point when I chose this dilapidated farm. It’s fed by … Read more
Ten days after solstice and it’s already staying light longer. Want to wish me a happy one-year-older? On January first, horses become one year older, regardless of their actual birthdate. Breed organizations do it for ease of record keeping, and I doubt the horses notice. As proud gray mare, that means I am a year … Read more
It’s the limbo week between Christmas and the New Year. The sunset of the year, if there is such a thing. Have you ever thought about how sunrise and sunset look alike? This photo is easy to place because Pikes Peak is on the western horizon here. But I know it’s an old photo because … Read more
I’ve been pondering two conversations about horses lately. They aren’t very cheerful and I always know, no matter what I write about, I’ll end up poking someone in the eye when I don’t mean to. But people are touchy about horses, I notice. The first conversation was several years ago, but I think of it … Read more
What are you afraid of? Maybe this question. Take a breath and check your shoulders. Are they down where they belong? Move your jaw and tilt your head. Walk an arc. It’s OK, give yourself any calming signal you want. It’s how horses and humans self-soothe and return to the present. Now, can we have … Read more
Nube was a beanpole of a yearling. If he and Ernest weren’t trying to get me bucked off a horse… if he wasn’t eating his body weight in hay every hour… if he wasn’t listening to the Grandfather Horse tell stories about me… if he wasn’t sleeping with donkeys… sometimes Nube came to work with … Read more
It’s cold on the flat windy treeless prairie of Colorado. The next few months will be even colder but right now, we have no tolerance so forty degrees brings out the Elmer Fudd hat. By spring, we’ll be talking trash about a North Pole expedition because the horses are wooly enough and we’ve been wearing … Read more
What is your first memory of listening to a horse? Not standing next to a horse and being certain he loved you. Not daydreaming about galloping him on the beach or burying your tear-drenched face in his mane and hiding. None of these things are listening. They are moments we might feel a connection because … Read more
What is it about horses? I think I might have drawn them on cave walls at the beginning of time, already a legend to deserve the honor. Horses have been with us ever since, our lives depending on them much more than they needed us. Nothing about that has changed. We are hooked and we … Read more
It was during a meeting in an online class called Back in the Saddle. We’d shared videos of the week’s work, each participant moving ahead at their own pace and level, and each person paired with a unique horse with a history of his own. Some were bringing horses back from time off, some of … Read more