Category Archives: Memoir

Just how many people in their 50s decide to take up horseback riding seems to be an unspecified number, even for Google. There are plenty of tips and warnings for...

“Arab, Brabant, Cleveland Bay, Dartmoor, Exmoor, Fell.”   When sleep eludes me, I list off horses in my head. I come up with a breed for every letter of the alphabet,...

Horses have played a huge role in history and helped shape the world we live in. But when it comes to Christmas, they haven’t much of a presence, other than...

I have been thinking about writing this for some time. Over the past year I’ve been waiting for some kind of conclusion to be able to feel like I can...

Before the trailer pulled up in front of the boarding barn with my precious cargo inside, I would have told you I was ready for horse ownership. I have ridden...

I’m sitting on the edge of my bed looking at myself in the mirror in my guest house room in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland. I’m dressed in boots and breeches...

“Jude should only be ridden by an adult with informed consent.” This was the first paragraph of the report on my Thoroughbred from the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary...

I’m branching away from the norm this week because I have been wondering about something. Is there a difference between finding a horse and finding a man? I don’t know...

The first time I watched the 1987 film Amadeus I cried. Not because of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's untimely death. I cried because I related to Antonio Salieri, the in-house composer of...

I’m not sure what’s happening to me. Inching up to the septuagenarian mark and losing two beloved horses in two years had taken a toll.  Maybe this is what happens....

"Do I have enough money for Taco Bell? No, I don't," says a trending #horsetok sound on the Internet right now. "But you know what I do have?" it continues,...

procrastination is theart of keepingup with yesterday —Don Marquis, archy and mehitabel, 1927 I opened a box of Breyer horses from my childhood the other day. I could say it...

The other day in the barn aisle I heard a totally unfamiliar noise. It was the sound of a child throwing a temper tantrum.  I stood there for a moment,...

"'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse," is the famous line from the poem A Visit From Saint...

Horse people know more about what is going on in the sky and in the dirt than most. We have multiple weather apps on our phones and check them often....

It’s been kind of a year of death for me, but if I am honest with myself, it’s always a year of death for someone. We’ve all endured the heartache...

One of your first lessons as a writer is using specific details, so the idea of show, don’t tell is burned into me. I shiver when I see it done...

I arrived home less than 24 hours ago and it feels strange. Strange not to be out driving around the English countryside or the Welsh or Scottish countryside for that...

I was unsure what to expect when I entered the New Forest. I assumed I’d see ponies and trees and maybe a few roads winding through the area and that...

Of all the Airbnbs in the UK, I had to book this one; a cute one-bedroom house with a clothesline. I knew I was in the county of Hampshire, but...