I slid the black rope halter onto Willow’s head, and felt her breathing shallow. Her eyes hardened, and the corner of her lips tightened. Not overt signs, but I’d been watching her for months, and this felt like a yell. I slid the halter off again, and turned away, not sure where to go from […]
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I knew there was something important for me to learn here, and didn’t have anyone to teach me, so I turned to Willow. That new starting point, the one that said she was exactly where she needs to be, and isn’t wrong for being there; the one where it’s okay for her to BE, was […]
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I leaned against the rail in the morning sun, watching Willow gobble the handful of pellets and supplements that comprised her breakfast. Her chestnut coat glistened, and I never would have recognized her as the starved and shaggy mare I’d rescued 2 years before. The knot in my stomach tightened. I still couldn’t do more […]
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You know the characters I described in the last chapter? Yup, I’ve been each of them. How about you? There are more types, of course, but I think you get the picture.So how do we recognize when we’re playing a part, and that there can be something else here, something more? How does our connection […]
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What’s the link between women and horses? I’m intentionally leaving men out right now, as there’s a quality in the connection between a woman and a horse that bears investigating. It’s there; undeniable, with roots buried deep in the unconscious of our culture. Like all things unconscious, it is powerful, and the power of unconscious […]
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1971 Fairfax, VA, 7 years oldI didn’t know why ponies were angry. I just knew that they were. I loved them anyway. And they dumped me off almost every week. Jumping was a fancy way of saying ‘falling off’. Until Chipper. He wanted to jump. The gray Connemara pony surged towards the tiny vertical, forgetting […]
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The ground slammed into my face; grit in my teeth, glasses flying. I wasn’t surprised at the impact. I’m the one who dove off the mare, just before she threw herself down, trying to dislodge me. The earth shook behind me as her body missed mine. Adrenaline still tastes like that sand; dry and scratchy […]
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Horses are honest; beautifully so.I, on the other hand, often am not. Not with myself. Not with other people, and not with horses.It’s not that I’m a pathological liar. I tell the truths that I see, and own what I recognize; it’s just that sometimes it can be hard to see what’s driving me. What’s […]
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I need an old oak tree, with space around it to inhale; not too much to ask for. I can’t breathe in neighborhoods. Can’t feel the gritty earth pressing up through my toes. It takes an old farmhouse to hold me in its stories – one of many who have gone before. I need to […]
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I’m on a houseboat. Never done this before… Jeff took us up to Smith Mountain Lake this weekend to celebrate our birthdays. The days leading up to this trip found me with a knot in my stomach. I couldn’t say why, and I also couldn’t shake it. The night before I bounced around the house, […]
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