A day with Odin

It’s a breath of fresh air and a sight for sore eyes to see the white fencing that runs across the front and lines the driveway. The short drive up to the farm is all uphill and the place feels like it’s much closer to the sky, leaving behind the small city’s noise and hubbub.

The perfect ride to the Air Force Ball

As the sun set, the night quickly became chilly. Yet, those who parked in the distant lot chose to wait in line to be shuttled to the Air Force Ball held at the Little Rock Air Force Base last Friday by one of the three carriages provided by The Princess’s Carriage.

When the wind kicks up

Like all horse-crazy little girls, I read all the Black Stallion books, cover to cover, over and over. Walter Farley gave the dream of feeling the power, the strength, the wind, the warmth and the heat of riding a horse. But, not just any horse. It was a big, black, incredibly fast stallion. I had no idea what a stallion was, and Farley didn’t quite explain it (other than it was a male horse), but I wasn’t all that happy that he chose to make the horse black. Black, at that point in my young mind, meant back luck, and the story pretty much played that out. So when Farley came up with a book about a red horse named Flame, I was in love. Hands down, a red horse meant fire, burning life and perhaps not so much bad luck. Even though a red horse, a sorrel, is the most common color for a horse and not exactly desirable, I still love a red horse.

Parents, pet and horse owners need education now

There are two things that burn, and I mean burn me bad. First is harming a child. The second is harming an animal. Do you see the pattern here? Both are dependent on adults, on us, to protect them and to provide for them. That is an absolute. There is no room in that absolute for harm in any way, shape or form. Got that? Good.

Now, I’m no dummy. I know that there are people who don’t happen to take the responsibility of care, protection and providing for kids and animals as seriously as I do. I say, “Shame on them!” What part of being an adult, a responsible adult, don’t these people get? Didn’t their mommas take care of them? If their mommas didn’t do the job, didn’t they hope that some other responsible adult would step up to the plate and make it right for them?

From pasture to stable

If you know me, you know that I cherish two things in life: my son and my horse. And then there’s the three dogs that are my constant companions. They rate pretty high up there too. But, Tim and Odin are my heart and soul.

If you know me, you know I’m a very passionate, emo-type person that feels nothing at less than 100 percent, and that overemotional-ness means that there has to be an outlet for all those emotions or I’d self-incinerate. Tim has all my love, but Odin gets all the runoff, just so that poor Tim doesn’t smother in motherly love. That’s how Odin shoulders a pretty big load in my little world.

Odin’s gift to me

Breathtaking. Seismic. Awesome. Thrilling.

Watching Odin run around takes my breath away. He put on a show for me today, and it was a sight to see. I wish I had my camera in my hand; it was in the car, and my iPhone stayed in my pocket. (This photo was taken last year, one of my favorites.)

It was an exciting day for Odin. It was hot, very windy, and when I got there, I led him out of the pasture and over to give him a bath. I don’t usually bath him. I would rather brush him well and let the rain be his cleaner. But, he’s shedding and I’m not there to brush him every day, so I gave him a bath in hopes that it eases his itchiness in my absence.

When the dream weighs 1,000 pounds

Today's horse trainers will tell you that 75 percent of people will sell their horse within the first year of ownership. More than half of those who stick it out longer than a year will sell their horse within 5 years. Why?

The answer is simple: unrealistic expectations. People buy a horse without thinking. They dream, but they don't think. They dream about riding the wind, riding into the sunset, winning at horse shows, flying over jumps, roping a cow, etc. The dreams are potent, lasting, intriguing draws to a romantic life of freedom and fun. Little to no thought is paid to what it really means to be around a horse, and a horse is 1,000 pounds of attitude.

It would be an ideal world if every horse glowed Hollywood-style. What a wonderful dream-come-true it would be if every horse knew, just as a saddle was strapped on and a bit put in its mouth, that he would carry you off into the wild blue yonder with nary a thought of balking, bucking, spooking, running off or running under the lowest tree branches around. Yes, the West was won from the back of a horse, but it all started way before the first saddle was ever thrown up on that horse's back.

Weekend fireworks a time to build trust and confidence

The long, hot, sultry, dog days of summer are here, complete with a growing drought and weeds galore. We are hammered by horse flies with bodies the size of a large man’s thumb and ticks that suck until they drop off their victims and splat open in a pool of blood. It’s a marvelous time, which I can now say in honesty since I recharged the A/C in the truck. Temps in the low 80’s used to feel too hot up in upstate NY, but now, I don’t complain about the heat until it starts nudging up to 100. We’ve adjusted to life in Arkansas, Odin and I.

This horse and I have become close in ways that has never been described in all the horse books I’ve read, and those ways are far from what the TV trainers like Pat Parelli and Clinton Anderson blast away about on RFDTV. Sure, they have a few good points and methods, but neither come close to what I have with my horse. I have no magic, I’m not psychic, I have no special tools or gear, I’m not young and lithe, and I have no specific method that I follow to get to where I’ve gotten with my horse. And, there is no secret.

It’s all in the release

There are times when I waver, split between the joy of life in all it's totality and fear of walking life's paths alone. Every fleeting thought is ripe with potential for both fear and joy. When the scales tip toward joy, which they do more often than not, life is astounding, glorious and rich. When the scales tip the other way toward the negative, fear rises up and overwhelms. No matter which way those scales tip, it is all symbiotic. When I remember the symbiosis, I remember that I am never alone. This I learned from my horse.

Odin never ceases to amaze me. I have never met a horse so expressive, interactive and communicative. I’m sure that has more to do with the years we’ve spent together than anything else, with those years spent growing and learning and growing some more.

To point at anything specific that has shaped our relationship is riddled with many of the terms that rile horse people on either side of the spectrum from traditional to the so-called natural horsemanship fad of the day. All the way up and down that spectrum are things of value, things to learn and things to incorporate into a relationship with a horse. So, my first bit of advice is to be an extremist in a different way – take it all in.

Does a horse feel? It doesn’t matter.

There's an ongoing, never-ending, ne'er-the-twain-shall-meet 'issue of debate' that just may never be laid to rest, and that is the question of whether the horse – or any warm-blooded animal that isn’t categorized as homo sapiens – has emotions.

My contribution to the debate is: It doesn’t matter!

No, it doesn’t matter if you believe they do or believe that they don’t. And that, my friends, is the key to the whole debate. You see, that’s all we can do is “believe.” We can’t know.

To throw another cog in the wheel, we also can’t know how another person feels or doesn’t feel. And, there’s even times when we can’t know how we feel – or don’t.

What it all boils down to is our ability to communicate. To nail our own feelings down, we first have to let ourselves feel, then we have to categorize those feelings based on past feelings. The last thing we do is find the words to describe those feelings. Once we ‘label’ the feelings, we have a better handle on it all because that is an objective act, which means our brains have kicked in to give a bit of balance to it all. In the end, we are only describing feelings, not feeling the feelings.

Odin, My Dream Horse

The walls were going to drop and the gates would be sealed. I had to escape. I had to.

The landscape was dead and pocked with the glaring reality of the world as we know it coming to a horrible end: debris, shattered windows, empty streets, a cold wind. Take all the apocalyptic movies you've seen, put them together, and there you have it.

Except, I had to get to the other side before the walls dropped and the gates sealed. Odin carried me, and bore his task with gallantry and pride. It was just me and Odin, Odin and I, running for our lives.

And, we made it to that other side.

What a wonderful dream. Why my brain produced a sorry B-movie synopsis, I'll never know, but its point drove home anyway. You see, in the dream, Odin and I were so in sync that we were that proverbial "One." A light touch on his side or his neck would turn him, if it was necessary at all. And, most the time it wasn't. He would just go where I looked.

That was the message of the dream. Once awake, I thought about it and chastised my mind for dreaming such a fantasy. I mean, realistically, thinking that a horse, a huge, 1,600 pound animal with a mind of its own, would   be so Hollywood heroic is a recipe for disaster. Realistically, I know that coming off this horse would mean a major splat with broken bones and a dented skull. Realistically, if I just fell off of his almost 6 foot height it would probably net about the same amount of injury.

Man, it sucks getting old... and realistic. The more I thought about it, the more it sucked.

Still Motion

I watched this young man work with his horse for close to an hour, and heard more coming from him than I have the words to express.

Opening the gate to let him into the arena, his eyes met mine, looking down at me from the back of his horse. His mouth didn’t move, but his eyes smiled in thanks. Young eyes, but wise somehow; a wisdom beyond what can only be 17 years of life.

Quiet, ever quiet, an inner stillness that his horse echoed. Yet, the pair was always in motion. Each movement was effortless, flowing and wild with potential.

In a relaxed lope, the horse’s ears back to listen, the loop swinging overhead melted into the launch with a flick of a wrist. The horse’s rump drops, planting his feet underneath while his rider steps off and down the length of rope.

Listen Close and You’ll Hear It

Years ago, I read this book called “The Other,” by Thomas Tryon. It was a strange story about this boy that had put a pitchfork into the hay pile that he and his identical twin used to jump out of the hay loft into. The twin brother died in that fatal jump that day, but you don’t know that until the end of the book. It’s a sucker-punch, compounded by the boys’ grandmother that teaches him to concentrate on and become a butterfly or a flower or a bird. I often wonder if that boy hadn’t been so mentally ill if he wouldn’t have grown into someone that was compassionate, empathetic and understanding.

A few days ago, I talked about anthropomorphizing, giving human traits to animals in order to increase our understanding of them, and in so doing, are more likely to be compassionate, empathetic and understanding to others as well as to animals. This is not to say that in order to understand the world through animals' eyes ignores the fact that they are what they are. You certainly don’t want to forget that a dog may be wagging its tail off its back end while all the while growling and snarling and that those teeth are sharp, no matter what message the dog is trying to send to you. And, no matter how close you feel to your horse, that’s not to say that horse will stop being a horse and mow you down if something startles it enough.

To Humanize is to Understand

You have to undertsand…

The 1,600 pound horse, red in color, ran around his fenced-in area. At a distance ranging from 100 to 500 feet, the sound of his gait was not always synchronized with the visual of his hooves hitting the ground. The speed at which the horse was traveling often blurred what he passed, unless he was headed straight at you.

Compare that with this:


Proud head up with a playful glint in his eye, with muscles rippling with power as his mighty hooves threw up clods of earth in his wake, the copper horse’s mane and tail streamed in the wind. He felt good, he was feeling his oats, and he was happy to include me in his play. I knew he wouldn’t run into me, he was always aware of me and my role of leader in our little herd of two, but still, his massive size coming at me full bore was enough to keep me on my toes, ready to jump to the side should he carelessly forget to respect.

Aside from the fact, I hope, that it is more enjoyable to read the second description of Odin coming straight at me at a dead run than the first paragraph, what is conveyed in the latter is more understanding. You now know more about what happened than what you could glean from just a statement of facts.

Odin’s Playful, Perfect Timing

I didn’t know it when I walked out the door with my camera in hand, but there was a party going on next door. A bunch of guys, young and old, were out on the porch smoking.

I get lost when I’m outside with the dogs, Odin and my camera. I wander aimlessly, oblivious to anything beyond the three acres enclosed in pasture fence. I noticed those guys smoking out on the porch when I heard a city-slicker’s attempt at neighing like a horse. It was pretty pitiful of a sound that I felt was meant to make fun of me.

I beat that feeling down for a few heartbeats and did what I usually do; I hid out of sight. Then, I saw the old water bucket and the light bulb went off in my head. I’ll show those guys what a real horse is, I thought to myself, and I grabbed that water bucket up.

Coming Home is the Best Part of the Day

There’s nothing better than coming home after a tough day at work to be greeted by the dogs and Odin.

(Of course, now that we’re winding down, the horse fed, the dogs fed and all laying at my feet as I sit at the computer, they become ‘fragrant’ too. Who knows which one it was that just let loose a loud, obnoxious fart! I knew it, it was Jake. He has that guilty look on his face…)

I don’t know how Saki and Hiro, the two little dogs, can wag their tails so hard while jumping all over me and yapping away can be any more welcoming. Chloe the Shepherd and Jake the Aussie aren’t half as fast, so by the time they get up to me, still before I’ve even moved the truck through the gate, Saki and Hiro have run off to bug Odin. Odin will trot up to me as I get out of the truck at the house and insist on a few itches before he’ll let me go in the house to change.

I was a little later than usual, working late then stopping for groceries (Oh, there’s the fragrance now. One of the dogs had to have eaten something more than the dog food I gave them to reek like that. Yuck!), there wasn’t much daylight left to the day to ride. But, Odin wanted to play, and that’s what we did.

S-u-n-s-e-t Spells Relief

Hello. My name is Theresa and I'm addicted to... sunsets!

I gasped in wonder when I saw that sunset, feed bucket in hand and an impatient horse circling around me. It had been over a week since we’ve seen any sun here, and this gorgeous view was the perfect end to a beautiful day.

Yeah, that sunshine outside got me moving. I surprised myself by getting off this chair in front of my computer, grabbed the saddle off its stand and headed outside to ride Odin. I didn’t think, I just did it.

I love that horse! He always gets me laughing and finds more than a few ways to amaze me every time I’m around him. I brushed him out, sprayed him down and got him saddled. Since I drank close to a gallon of iced tea, I had to run inside for a minute and left Odin standing there. Nope, he wasn’t there when I got back, but the smart horse didn’t drag my rope through the gooey mud puddle, and he was only a few feet away from where I left him.

A Wee Bit of Progress Today

I’ve started horses, and ridden plenty of finished horses, but have never had the opportunity to bring a started horse to the finished stage…until now…and to be honest, I have no idea what I’m doing. I take it as a good sign that I must not be too far off base because I’m still alive to talk about it!

Odin has had the last week off. Not wanting to go backwards with him, I saddled him and got right on instead of doing some ground work first, just like I did the last time I was on him.

At first, a little bit of “No, I ain’t gonna do that” was cured by a rein slap along my leg. Then, I did some flexing, which took him a few seconds to figure out. Every time I bent his head around, he grabbed the excess stirrup leather or the rein in his mouth. I may be trying to teach him, but he’d rather screw around.

We walked out and explored a little tree that I asked him to walk around. Then, while walking out about half way across the pasture, he decided to squeal and shake his head. The next movement would’ve been a buck, so I gave him a good jerk to the reins and that took his mind off thinking about bucking.

We walked along the fence line, going so far and then I asked him to turn into it. Back the other way, and turn again the other way. A few times, he did fine. As usual with him, once a move isn’t new anymore, he doesn’t want to do it. I asked a few more times, and when he did relatively well, we set off across the pasture again. No antics, no “I wanna go this way” crap, so I figured it was a good way to end and we headed back in.

We got all the way over to the truck where I planned to unsaddle, and my neighbor came home and called for me to come chat a bit. So, we headed back out, and Odin behaved like a charm. He likes the neighbors; they always bring him apples and carrots, so it didn’t take much to get Odin to visit.

Jennifer was there, a pretty good rider – one who actually does what I ask with Odin – and she got up to ride a bit. I had my head turned talking, and when I looked back, Jennifer was on the ground and Odin was pulling back on the reins. Odin had bucked her off! She got back up on him, a bit more wary this time, and rode him for quite a bit longer. Whew! She wasn’t hurt and Odin didn’t learn that bucking would get him out of being ridden!

Odin’s next trick was trying to mow his way back to me. Jennifer stopped him from going anywhere near me until she was ready to rejoin us. And then Odin put his head into my chest and stood there. It was one of those “aw” moments. I had Jennifer ride him back around to the truck and we both unsaddled and brushed him out.

One threat, one buck and a whole lot of good things with the ride ending on a good note. It’s a start, and there’s a long ways to go, but he’s coming along.

Tomorrow, I’m going to lunge him first!

Odin’s Moments

Out of all the things in life, it’s being with Odin that brings me the most peace.

This evening, I set out with my camera to walk around and snap photos of just about anything that caught my eye. It rained earlier, and the ground was still too wet to ride. Odin didn’t quite know what to think about that. I’ve been going out every evening and catching him to either ride or just brush him out. For awhile, he just watched what I was doing from across the pasture.

It wasn’t long before curiosity got the best of him and he caught up with me as I wandered around. I’d stop to take photos, then walk away to the next thing that caught my attention. Odin would graze when I stopped, and when I walked away, he’d catch up and graze again. A few times, I got too far away and he’d give a few bucks as he ran to catch up again.

Every now and then, Odin would very gently and carefully come to stand up against me. I snapped this photo when something in the distance caught his attention while he was standing up close to me. Most of the time, he’d ask for an itch on his back or shoulder, then I’d walk away again. The pattern continued until the sun set and it was time for his supper.

The evenings belong to Odin. After he eats and drinks, he’ll ask for itches or just stand next to me to cock a leg and grab a quick nap. It’s usually dark by the time he walks away, signaling the end of the day. At peace, I head inside for the night.

I belong to Odin as much as Odin belongs to me.

Grass is Greener on the Other Side

I don't know if you've noticed, but lately, things have been catching me blindsided. It's a recent trend, and it seems that it isn't just a few things. It just might be becoming a way of life! Oh, how I wish I had health insurance...

I was just dropping into a deep sleep last night when I hear this knock-knock-knock. I live out in the middle of nowhere, just about, so I figured it was one of the dogs itching with a back leg and whacking the floor in the process.

Knock-knock-knock, rap, rap. "Jake, quit!" I snarled at the dog I figured was making all the noise.

Knock-knock-knock, rap, rap, rap rap rap. Now, I'm starting to get pissed, which means I'm waking up, and if it doesn't stop, I'll be completely awake and sleep won't come back for awhile.

Knock-knock-knock, rap, rap, rap, thump THUMP. That ain't no dog, but it's the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere, and who would be knocking? And, I'm awake. You see, the dogs only bark at other dogs, so there's none of that going on...until I get out of bed and head toward the front door.

"Theresa, sorry to wake you, but we were just going to bed when we heard the thunder of hooves go right by our bedroom window and we figured the only thundering hooves around here belonged to Odin, and sure enough, he's in our yard." My neighbor, Jason, who had no idea just how close he was to getting punched, said to me when I opened the door.

The front light has been out for weeks now. I have yet to remember to get bulbs at the store. So, I tromp off through the pasture blind as a bat and managed to step into all sorts of things I'm glad I didn't see in the dark, halter and rope in hand. Odin had his nose buried into the grass in their freshly-mowed yard and was no problem to catch. The trek back was longer, having to walk around the outside of the pasture to the front gate. If Odin was a few feet shorter, I would've jumped on and made him carry me back home. Instead he had to walk at a snail's pace, waiting for me to blindly feel my way home in the dark.

This morning, up before the sun, coffee in the making, I headed out with the fence charger that I hadn't yet had a chance to hook up. Odin ain't no dummy, and since he didn't get shocked the night before, he'll step on through the fence again unless I get it fixed up and zapping again.

I managed to get the charger hooked up quickly. The socket end of the electric cord had a sizable burn that about fused the old charger's plug to it permanently, and I was faced with a dilemma. No power, no electric fence, and no other power cord around. But, I tugged, and the two separated. Still, would there be juice coming through it? I plugged in the new charger, and nothing. Nothing I could do about it. I figured I'd run to Wally World after work and spend the day hoping that Odin stayed in the pasture all day.

By then, I had been kneeling so long on the ground that my legs didn't want to work. Uh oh. One leg was actually asleep. Double uh oh! So I wiggle around a bit, trying to get untangled enough to get a foot on the ground and looked around for something to grab onto to pull myself up with. The closest thing was the fence post at the beginning of the line, complete with the wire from the charger to the electric rope fence.

Oh well, the charger isn't working anyway, so I grabbed onto the t-post, and ZAP! Trust me, the "OW!" that came out of me echoed off the mountains a mile or two away. I hadn't actually touched the hot wire, but had put my finger close enough to it for the charge to ark, go through the end of my finger and to the metal t-post.

That's not the optimal way to start a day, especially without getting enough sleep, but Odin was still in the pasture when I got home from work. Whew! I was lucky this time, but I sure do hope that this strange trend of mine has an end to it!