last night on the mountain retreat

On Thursday morning my two teenagers and I packed up, said goodbye to all the November Hill animal crew and husband/dad/solo farmhand, and headed up to one of my new favorite places on the earth. A good friend shared her mountain home for the second time - the first was the writing workshop back in June, and this weekend it's been a wonderful getaway and 3/4 of a family retreat.

We enjoyed the fall color on the drive here, and were absolutely thrilled when we got a few miles from the cabin and spotted what looked like a dusting of snow on neighboring mountaintops. The cabin is as wonderful as it was the first time, and I have loved seeing the rushing creek in its autumn outfit. We've done a little bit of walking, a little bit of riding on the Polaris up the mountain (daughter would not ride with me through sticky places - she got out and walked!), lots of creek watching, and some movie watching on the HUGE screen TV.

It's cold enough we've had the fire burning all weekend.

I've written a chapter in Fiona and the Water Horse, another chapter in Ava Lee's book, and been thrilled to sit here with Cold Mountain in my hands for a re-read. I had forgotten that a 17-hand Hanoverian gelding is in the book. Made me miss the Big Bay and also made me wonder - were there Hanoverians in the U.S. during the Civil War?

Daughter has finished her first research paper, done long exposure shots of waterfalls, and did a model shoot for my son in his ancient Greek garb.

Son has identified trees, gathered some wood samples, taken many photographs, and cooked some meals for us.

Tomorrow we're heading back to November Hill, but on the way we'll take a different route, stop by a favorite place for lunch, and see what else presents itself!

I had a terrible time uprooting from November Hill. It's always hard to leave. We've checked in daily and everyone there is doing fine so far.

Come chat with me and Janet Roper Tuesday night!

Janet Roper, of Talk to the Animals, will be chatting with me about horses, books, life, and who knows what else Tuesday night on her BlogTalk radio show:

GO HERE for the details.

And if you can't join us live, you can always listen to the recorded chat at your leisure!

Knowing me and knowing Janet and knowing the animals on November Hill, I expect this will be a blast in every single way!

The FEI and the No Blood Rule

As I understand it, the current rule is that blood in warm-up or competition means elimination. The FEI is now talking about amending this rule so that if there is blood, a vet on site can examine the horse and clear it to continue competing.

If you feel dressage should not in any way be a "blood sport" GO HERE to sign a petition expressing that.

western pleasure QH champion 2011

You'll have to wait through the interview to see the world champion QH in western pleasure and his movement. This is what Cody looked like when he came to live with us at age 2. We thought he was almost 4 years old, but when his papers came he was 2 years old! And fully working at walk, trot, and canter under saddle.

His canter was just like this one. It took several years of gentle encouragement to teach him that we did NOT want this kind of mincing, choppy movement. He literally had to be re-taught to move like a horse.

I admit, it was easy to sit. But it looks like lameness to me, not like anything I've ever seen a horse do at liberty.

I'm not trying to pick on the rider of the world champion western pleasure horse. But I'm curious - what do you think of this way of going? I'm not even talking about the training methods or the riding - just the movement.

How does it compare to the canter pirouette and piaffe - my least favorite dressage movements?

lest you think horses lack intention and empathy

This morning Salina had an appointment with her massage therapist. Salina is 28 years old with one eye, arthritic knees, and I have said many times that she has become the heartbeat of November Hill. There is nothing that happens on this plot of land that escapes her attention. She is my partner. While I am inside, not always alert to the goings-on in the pastures that surround our house, my most trusted way of checking the "temperature" of the herd is to look out the window and find Salina. During the summer in the daytime she is often in the barn with hay and fans, and she seems to know when I look out that I need to see her face. She almost always puts her head out her window at just the moment I glance out needing to know what's going on. I know when things are okay from the way she holds her head and ears.

 At night she will come to my bedroom window and whinny if she needs the help of the humans in the family. There is no mistaking the tone in her call. It means COME NOW.

This morning everyone had breakfast tubs and I had allowed Keil Bay to come to Salina and the donkeys' side of the barn thinking that while Salina got her massage I would groom Keil Bay and get him ready for a ride. I had all kinds of thoughts flowing about what we might do in the ride. I even thought I might take him into the back field and jump a few baby jumps.

But I never got to that point. At the appointed massage hour, Keil Bay went into Salina's stall and planted himself in front of her, head emerging into the barn aisle, clearly waiting for something.

When H. arrived, Keil was ready. Keil Bay loves body work. He loves chiropractic adjustment, loves massage, and basically just loves attention of all kinds. He's the only horse I've ever seen who greets the vet with the same enthusiasm with which he greets almost everyone. He is a horse that will come and wait at his stall door or at the gate if he has an injury. Keil is a horse, but he trusts his people to take care of him. Today it was obvious he was asking for a massage.

Even when I got him out of Salina's stall, thinking he would walk on out of the barn, he stopped, and as if to accentuate the point, Salina came out behind him and lined up - LINED UP - behind him, along with both donkeys. If we had been doing structural family therapy I would have noticed that they were physically, literally, putting him FIRST IN LINE. It was not my most observant moment.

I am embarrassed to say that I did not listen. I stood and to my credit I apologized to him that it was not his turn. With a tighter budget not every horse here is getting regular massages right now, and I have Salina on a monthly schedule mostly because of her age and her infirmities. In my mind she has earned that monthly massage and the relief it brings her.

So I told Keil Bay he would get a turn as soon as I could manage it, and I headed him to the front field gate, which I had left open, and which he had ignored, because as much as he wanted the grass, he wanted that massage more. I quite literally shoved him through the gate, with both my hands on his hind end, and being the good sport he is, he went.

I walked back to the barn aisle expecting Salina to be ready for her massage. It always takes her a minute to relax and give up her role as boss mare, but she generally does it and then goes into endorphin bliss as H. works her muscles from head to tail and back up to her head again. I have seen Salina almost fall to the ground due to the extreme relaxation she experiences from this work. The benefits she gets from it are concrete and measurable.

Today she would not have any part of it. She tossed her head, snapped her lips at me, and tried to walk out of the barn. I fussed at her in English and in German. I tried cajoling her. We walked her to the edge of the barn aisle so she could see out. We tied her. She was absolutely furious and let us know in the most emphatic gesturing I've ever seen her do that she was NOT getting a massage.

Finally, in frustration, I unhooked the lead line and said "What are you trying to say?" She walked out of the barn with as bold and fluid a stride as I've seen her take in months. She headed straight down the grass paddock and began looking down the hill.

I turned to H. and said I would just go get Keil Bay. By this time, he'd gone down the hill to the front field and Cody had come up near the gate. So I said, well, maybe Cody is the one who needs it today. I opened the gate and went to get Cody and he walked up to me and then RAN past me to Salina who was pacing back and forth still looking down the hill.

I went and got Keil Bay. As soon as he was in the barn aisle and H. put her hands on him she said "He really does need this." As she worked, it became clear to both of us that in fact Keil REALLY needed the work. He had many tight muscles and some sore spots. As soon as he was in the barn Salina completely settled down and began to graze. Her agitation simply disappeared. About halfway through the work, she came up and looked in, as if she were making sure he was getting what he needed. I herded her back out, and closed the barn doors so we wouldn't end up with a crowd of equine spectators. She came around to the end stall and stood mirroring what Keil Bay did. He rubbed his eye on my shoulder, she rubbed hers on the stall wall. He shook his head, she shook hers.

And throughout his massage he would turn to look at H. with soft eyes and big yawns and licking and chewing.

Nothing these horses and donkeys do surprises me any more. They are advanced beings as far as I'm concerned, and they share more with me than I ever knew to expect when they came into our lives. What surprises me every single time is how absolutely dumb I can be when it comes to listening to them. As much as I watch and note and look for, as devoted as I am to trying to see what it is they have to say to me, I still miss the most obvious statements. I do my human thing and they try their best to say what they need to say ten different ways until they hit on one that clicks for me.

And when I finally get it, when I actually listen and act on what it is they're trying to tell me, they are ALWAYS right. But never are they smug or anything but grateful that I listened.

I've written this before but I feel the need to write it again. If you think equines don't have feelings, don't feel emotion, don't have the brain matter to form thoughts and plans and intentions, that's fine. All I can say is you are missing out on a relationship that is pure and honest and has more to teach than I can put into words.

The only thing you have to do is open your heart and your mind and listen.