While sorting through my father’s belongings after his death, I found this photo of me riding Pumpkin, the mare of my childhood. The photo triggered a powerful insight in me. It depicts a moment I remember clearly, and one that defined much of what I believed about myself for the …
On cold, wet, dark winter days when I’ve changed clothes multiple times because I’m soaked to the skin, and I’m feeling frustrated because the tractor broke down, and then the wind blows down a tree destroying a horse fence, and my fingers are too frozen to open a bucket of …
Not all those who wander are lost – J.R.R. Tolkien When I was 12 years old my sweet father took my sister and me on an epic six-week trip throughout the Western United States. We visited, camped, and backpacked in many of our country’s most beautiful public lands like …
Many things can go wrong between the time of matching a stallion to a mare and finally riding the consequential horse four (or more) years later. Problems can occur during gestation, foaling, weaning, and starting. Thousands of dollars will be spent—stud fees, veterinary fees, feed, farrier, and trainer. And then …
My warmblood gelding Beowulf (Wulf) is 30 years old. He’s been the model of health all his life, but this fall he’s beginning to show signs of his advanced age. He has difficulty eating hay (though he tries) and mostly lives on large amounts of pelleted feed. His topline is …
Late morning on September 7, Labor Day, I was hot-footing it north on Interstate 5, heading home from judging a horse show in Eugene, Oregon. As I sung along with the radio, I noted to myself how dry the Willamette Valley looked. Along the way I stopped off to meet …
There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. These are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns—those things we don’t know we don’t know. – Donald Rumsfeld Wellness weighs heavy on our minds these days. It …
It’s late July as I write this column and I’m preparing to make the eight-hour drive down to the Oregon Horse Center to judge a Working Equitation show. Hurray! It’s the first horse show I’ve been to in 2020. I’m excited to see horses and people in the flesh. I’ll …
Training is directing your horse toward something he doesn’t know. – Anna Blake When I was in my late teens, I worked with an older horse trainer I respected a great deal. He didn’t talk a lot, but one of the things he told me was this: “Train a …
My young horse, Gus, turned three years old in May. The years have flown by since I brought him home as a pudgy weanling, and now it’s time to start him under saddle. He’s a typical adolescent—bumbling and silly in one moment, taking my breath away with his athleticism and …
