It’s the week between Christmas and New Years. And call it a holiday tradition, but I have no idea what day it is or even what year it is. I’m old enough that it feels like a year lasts about twenty minutes, but this year was the meanest twenty minutes ever. Looking back, it feels … Read more
I’m coming up on the anniversary of moving to my farm twenty-five years ago. It coincides with my dysfunctional affair with technology. My first night here was a full-moon Halloween. I know this because I wrote important dates on my calendar. This means that at the end of one year, I hand-copied it all onto … Read more
There is a recent article in the NYT about the culture wars going on in dog training that’s worth reading. (Click here.) The two sides agree on one thing: their side is right, and the other is wrong. The only winner is social media, where wildfire destruction is good business. It says something about dog … Read more
Do you notice that it gets a little easier to be yourself every day? Public speaking wasn’t the sort of thing I was born being good at. My first lesson: Everyone thinks it’s a good idea if the person making the presentation breathes from time to time. I listened to podcasts about public speaking, and … Read more
It’s February on the high prairie at the fringe of the Rocky Mountains. The pond is still frozen so there is an unnatural quiet, no bird chatter, no wings in the sky. After months of feeling that light is somehow a product of ice lighting the ground, the sun feels just a bit warm again. … Read more
People tell me that when they’re with their horses, they aren’t always perfect. They sound apologetic, you’d think I wore a clergy collar. Whatever they say after that is drowned out by my ghost herd nickering and snorting, bucking and farting, and rolling around in the mud. The equine afterlife has perfectly placed mud baths … Read more
It’s what we do: We keep horses. Sometimes a foal too young to be ridden, so we show patience and keep them. Sometimes it’s adult horses with flawless training and good minds, and while we practice the art of riding, we keep them. Too often we get horses who have been damaged by harsh handling, … Read more
No more lingering in the melon-colored dusk, grazing late to the barn. The pasture is finished, even the weeds only skeletons. Overnight, the horses prefer barn-stored hay in the windbreak of a south-facing barn. The light drops fast, blood-splatter leaves in a green hedge. Pried from my hand what I hold dear, instead wrapping … Read more
Stay outside until the sun is low, reluctant to let the day end, tidying halters, raking loose hay into stalls, dragging my feet. Not ready. Just that this sweet ordinary day, this warm season, will soon be carried off in the wind, gone to seed. Loosening my grip from what I know will be … Read more
Keeping the good stuff, just adding on.
Pausing at Dusk