A Fearsome Beauty: The Upside of Turds

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The Upside of Turds

I love barn chores, I do. Simple work of the hands with a beginning, middle, and end. Doing the PM clean and feed halts the hamster-wheeling of my thoughts for a while. And speaking of rodents, I was forking near-frozen piles out of Molly's stall tonight. The turds were like marbles in the bitter cold. I sifted 10 or 12 of them on to the rake and swung it to the muck bucket. Then one turd rolled off the rake and took off, defying gravity by rolling high up into the straw. But no, it was a little black vole. How wonderful.

No comments:

Post a Comment

About This Journal

I began this journal to think through my experience with a mare I bought in 2004, after years away from riding, and then my start-over with a gelding I acquired in 2009. The one horse shook my confidence as a rider; I hoped to rebuild it with the other. I eventually gave back the horse I thought could help me overcome my anxiety and there before me stood again the horse with whom I choked in the first place.

It sounds like I traveled in a circle, yet not only did I change, but in 2010 I bought another horse, a kind, affectionate Appendix mare who seemed to fall from the sky. "Third time's a charm," they say. It was true for me in love, now let it be true in horses.

I strive to write truthfully about fear, doubt and tension, among other things, difficult subjects to talk about without being self-serving or cheaty. But I tend to dig deep (though it may be little more than scab picking). If you can relate to what I'm talking about, you're welcome to read along and comment whenever you like. Thanks for visiting.