Remember that Thanksgiving painting by Norman Rockwell? With a jovial white-bread family leaning into frame with smiling, delighted faces? A woman wearing an apron is placing a turkey on the table while the man standing behind her looks like your favorite grandpa. It was completed in 1943, and FDR was president. The painting is called … Read more
Over the river and through the woods, To grandmother’s house we go. The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh Through white and drifted snow… It was a Thanksgiving song we learned in grade school. Do you remember? I knew, from the moment I saw my farm, that they wrote that song about … Read more
Happy Thanksgiving from Infinity Farm and The Gray Mare Podcast. … Relaxed and Forward Training by Anna Blake is no longer on Facebook because of repeated hacking. If you or your horse appreciate my writing, please share, subscribe to this blog, or join me at The Barn School. The Barn School, is a social and … Read more
Meet my dogs, Preacher Man, Mister, and Jack. They’re in the doorway to my writing studio. It’s Thanksgiving night, which is always on a Thursday. So, for the last thirteen years, every Thanksgiving evening (and every other Thursday night) we meet here to write my blog. It’s usually the All-Horse Channel, as I share what … Read more
It’s Thanksgiving time and I should write something special, but I feel kind of ordinary. All I can think about is how dry it is. Last week a fire started on a neighbor’s property. They got it under control quickly, but I stood with my mouth open watching. I was frozen, knowing … Read more
You could tell it was the 1980’s because I’d done something with my hair that made me look like a Portuguese Water Dog. A permanent wave to posterity. I was in a laundromat washing horse blankets. I wasn’t trying to save the mess at home. I didn’t have a washer. So, two horses in a … Read more
I came in from the barn yesterday with a Thanksgiving hangover. I confess I’m a glutton. I totally over-indulged in the hairy abundance of the day. We have company here for the holiday. They are in our extended herd. We use that term pretty freely around here. If you have fur, or have ever liked … Read more
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I think we should nix all the others and celebrate Thanksgiving every month. I am fine with changing the meal sometimes, as long as the tradition of eating too much, sleeping, and saying thank you is still the order of the day. Got to love a holiday with such low … Read more
I got an advertisement in the mail from a local tack store this week. It was printed to look like a Christmas wish list, personalized with my name at the top. Surprisingly, there was nothing on that alleged list that I actually wanted. Disbelief still hangs heavy in the air. What would be on my Christmas wish list? Let me think… The … Read more
This is how you can tell there is a tourist in the barn: they keep their eyes on the ground and there’s lots of erratic tiptoeing. Some even squeal at the sight of manure. I call it Fecalphobia- an irrational fear of digestive waste. Thankfully, humans are the only species prone to the disease. (Nincompoops.) Everybody … Read more