Horse Sense

With this weekend's completion of the Belmont Stakes, the 2021 Triple Crown circuit officially has come to a close. 

As a girl, I had very few opportunities to saddle a horse. The local YMCA program allowed kids to ride in a big circle within the safe and cozy confines of a small wooden corral. I had a chance to ride during my time in Montana, a more freewheeling experience that involved neither reins nor stirrups. In retrospect, likely not the best idea.

But in recent years I have had two opportunities to ride with proper equipment and a guide. The first was an easy ramble across the desert landscape south of Tucson. And the second, a jaunt that traced the progression of the battle of Gettysburg. To ride across those fields, just as the soldiers of the Civil War did, was both remarkable and moving. 

"We have almost forgotten how strange a thing it is that so huge and powerful and intelligent an animal as a horse should allow another, and far more feeble animal, to ride upon its back." – Peter Gray