Piglets will arrive in three weeks, and the Red Fox has begun watching the sows with anticipation, our dogs chasing his culinary aspirations off the fields daily.  The Hawks have begun to ride the morning skies, searching for a hen taken set, predicting an early Spring.  The lettuce starts pulled in November will find themselves placed back into the outdoor ground. The potatoes have sprouted eyes, waking from their dark, dry keep. Spinach and Mustard will grace our dinner plate.

Northern farmers begin smiling again, our frustrations of another long winter tossed into the forgotten annuals of yesterday. Exit soon the cold, and the sun grows stronger, and sticks around longer, by two minutes each day.

(And even better than all this?)

The Saddle Fitter comes, now open widely the barn.  Steady the light so he may see. Ready the farmer’s Spanish Mustangs for Spring!  An outdoor arena nears completion.  The  sun rises and the shadows lessen,  and on our ground we welcome the great Equestrian Masters,

the original Horse Whisperers,

the first to behold Natural Horsemanship,

the cowboys of days old when Knights readied themselves for maidens and kings, when Dragons need  be felled from the sky! Men of Science, Men of Earth, with broken collarbones and ripped leggings, tamers of untarnished colts and mishandled stallions alike.  These are the creators of this, the Noblest Art.

Speak now Master Steinbrecht, scream these truths Master Seeger, paint the picture Master Albrecht, and carry forth the first equestrian words, dear student of Socrates.

“Xenophon,” lends Socrates, ” will they need reinvent the Wheel, in the 21st century, as well?”

Let the journey begin!

Wait for me!

Evolution is a series of related changes in a certain direction. With their fossilized remains, Horses have provided humans a well documented example of a species exhibiting change throughout time. Arguably, no living creature presents a more complete archeological picture of adaptation across environment and time. A grandiose symbol of inherit power, beauty, and spirit, the remains of the Horse encompass the whole of our world.

Where would we humans be, were it not for Invention?  Where would we be, if not for the Horse?

Once, when young, a small girl looked up to her mother and asked, “Mom.  Do Horses go to heaven?”

With slight calculation, the girl’s mother smiled as she looked down, into the child’s eyes, and replied, “Yes. Horses go to heaven.”

This was of great relief to the child. You see, she had been instructed to believe in a heaven, and she was certain, even at this very delicate age, that if heaven kept no Horses, than it was not a place where she wanted to be.

SMR#3217 "Tequila Moon", a rare Spanish Mustang