A New World, Full of Horses: Hoofprints: Horse Poems, by Jessie Haas

My copy of Hoofprints: Horse Poems by Jessie Haas is the most damaged book I own. Its pages are permanently rippled from the afternoon I was so caught up in reading Grandmother that I didn't notice the horse on whose back I was lying had moseyed down to the edge of the pond for a splendid mid-afternoon roll. Thousands of bits of hay and shavings are wedged into the binding from the hundreds of mornings when reading The Bow-Legged Girl, Hittite Chariot Horse, and Painted Horses made me so late for morning chores that I had to stuff the book into the back of my jeans, jump down from the hayloft - no time for stairs! - and start raking the stalls before the barn manager reached the stable door. From cover to cover, my Hoofprints is dog-eared, dust-streaked, grass-stained, and wind-worn almost to tatters from accompanying me - and the barn staff and students who borrowed it whenever they could pry it out of my hands or slide it out of my saddlebags - on our daily hoof-printed journeys.

Don't get me wrong: I'm usually very careful about keeping my books in good condition. But, in a way, I'm glad that wind, weather, and my and my friends' everyday adventures are changing this book, even distintegrating it back into the world. Because that's what Haas's poems do. They ripple inside your consciousness. They lodge in and fill the forgotten corners of your heart. They dissolve into the ordinary world you know and create a new world within it - a world full of horses and horse-people from the dawn of time and the furthest reaches of six continents, horses and people who tell their unforgettable stories with beauty, power, and passion. Once you read the poems in Hoofprints, you will never look at a horse, a rider, or a sun-dappled sweep of land the same way again.

Currently, Hoofprints is out of print. However, it is absolutely worth your while to track down a used copy, even a copy as careworn as mine. After a few days, you'll hardly notice its condition, because you'll be giving it so much wear yourself, and so will the teens - the book was a VOYA Poetry Pick! - and adults who will borrow it, with and without permission, from you. Just yesterday, my copy got a new hoofprint of its own, from Pegasus surreptitiously sliding it out of my backpack, trying to squirrel it into his shed so he could read it again once I'd gone home. It's a testament to how much I love him that I pretended I don't notice -- but I will "discover" it and reclaim it, first thing tomorrow.

Jessie Haas is the author of more than a dozen award-winning fiction and nonfiction horse-related books for children and teens. You can learn more about these books and Hoofprints on her website: www.jessiehaas.com .

Open Up & Say "Neigh" : Medical Students Taught Bedside Manner with Horses, with Dr. Nancy Snyderman, via Today Health

Horses often inspire us to be better people, but can they help medical students be better doctors? Dr. Alan Hamilton, a neurosurgery professor at the University of Arizona Medical Center, believes that working with horses can help medical students develop a better beside manner for their human patients. Since 2001, he has taught this class on horsemanship for first year med students, and similar classes are now being offered by other medical schools. Dr. Nancy Snyderman of Today Health reports:

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Your Horse Poem on Mars: "Send Your Haiku to Mars! NASA Seeks Poets," by Korva Coleman, via NPR and NASA's Go to Mars with MAVEN Project

NASA has issued its first literary call for submissions! Three lucky poets will have their haiku sent to Mars with this November's MAVEN spacecraft mission.

The haiku can address any subject, including horses. Poets can be of any age or background, so kids and adults, as well as novices through poet laureates can apply.

For all the info, read Korva Coleman's NPR article, "Send Your Haiku to Mars! NASA Seeks Poets." Then polish up your best poem and submit it to the Go to Mars with MAVEN website by the July 1, 2013 deadline.

Good luck, and may the horse be with you!

From the Literature & Landscape of the Horse Retreat: Author Page Lambert's Guest Post, "The X-Chromosome - Tracing the Heart of Your Story"

It's a horse-crazy writer's summer dream: slip away one June and attend Page Lambert's Literature & Landscape of the Horse retreat. Imagine settling in at the Vee Bar Guest Ranch in Laramie, Wyoming, with horses on the front lawn and the Snowy Range Mountains out back. Then, for five straight days, you can simply "write about, read about, and be about horses," rekindling your inspiration for writing, riding, and life. On the eve of this year's Kentucky Derby, Page shared this advice for horse-lovers and writers on connecting with the source of our greatest stories and finding the heart to achieve our dreams.

Please welcome Page Lambert.

This year’s Kentucky Derby marks the 40th anniversary of the great racehorse Secretariat’s Triple Crown win. Secretariat’s bloodline and the story of his greatness lives on in the hearts of those who loved him, and literally in the equine hearts of all his descendants. Our favorite stories endure because at their core, beneath the word-smithing, lies heart. But how can we ensure that the heart of the stories we write will tick on and on?

If you could weigh the heart of your story - feel its pulse in the palm of your hand - could you trace its genetic greatness back to the works of the authors whom you most admire? Would there be a "felt" line of descent between the story you're writing now and the first childhood story that made your heart race? Maybe it was Wind in the Willows, or Tom Sawyer, or My Friend Flicka? What is meant by "felt line of descent?"

If we explore the literal and figurative "heart" of the race horse Secretariat, we'll find that his story starts like all fairy tales...

Once upon a time (actually, it was Apri1 1, 1764), in a country whose coasts stretched between the wave-capped waters of the Irish, Celtic and North Seas, a chestnut Thoroughbred colt was born. His owner the Duke of Cumberland christened him Eclipse and sold the stud colt to a sheep dealer. The sheep dealer sold half-interest in the horse to Captain O'Kelly, who was married to a brothel owner.

Eclipse went on to be one of the world's great racehorses. He died in 1789 and, as was the tradition in England, just his head, heart, and hooves were buried (a gruesome, gripping detail). When the London surgeon performing the autopsy cut him open, he found that the racehorse had a massive heart weighing 14 pounds - 6 pounds heavier than the heart of an average horse.

Greater even than Eclipse's fame as a racehorse was his fame as a sire. In 1837, a progeny filly with a rather small frame named Pocahontas was born. She carried an X chromosome passed onto her by Eclipse's daughter, Everlasting. 150 years later this "large heart" gene would be passed down to one of the greatest horses the world has ever known. Secretariat won the Triple Crown, setting track records and world records at the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont. He died at the age of 19 after siring more than 600 colts. His heart wasn't put on a scale and weighed as Eclipse's had been, but the surgeon who held the champion's still-warm heart in his hands estimated it at more than 22 lbs.

How, then, does a heart fuel not only our legs, but also carry our dreams? How can a heart urge us to go the distance, to keep writing, in the face of overwhelming odds? In Mary O'Hara's classic novel My Friend Flicka, you can almost feel your own heart racing as young Ken McLaughlin rides down the mountain after seeing Rocket's filly for the first time:

No dream he had ever had, no imagination of adventure or triumph could touch this moment. He felt as if he had burst out of his old self and was something entirely new - and that the world had burst into something new too. So this was it - this was what being alive meant - Oh, my filly, my filly, my beautiful...

But Mary O'Hara didn't finish Ken's sentence. She left it to the reader’s imagination, perhaps even to our pens, hoping that we will one day write our own everlasting stories - stories that will pulse in the palms of the reader's hands even as we race toward the finish line. Look toward that finish line. See who has gone before. Imagine their words and stories leading the way. Visualize that line of descent. Thank those who have already run the race, clearing the way, then look behind you and visualize those whose stories will follow yours, and cheer them on as well.

Join Page in Laramie, Wyoming from June 1-6, 2013 for her 6th annual Literature & Landscape of the Horse retreat. While you're on the website, you might also want to check out her 17th annual River Writing Journey for Women in Moab, Utah from September 10-13, 2013 with special guest, internationally renowned Native American musician and author of She Had Some Horses and Crazy Brave, Joy Harjo. (Page's river trips were featured in O Magazine as "One of the top six, all-girl getaways of 2006!")

Morning gather at the Literature & Landscape of the Horse retreat

Can You Hear Your Horse Talking? "When the animals come to us" by Gary Lawless

When the animals come to us,
Asking for our help,
Will we know what they are saying?
When the plants speak to us
In their delicate, beautiful language,
Will we be able to answer them?
When the planet herself
Sings to us in our dreams,
Will we be able to wake ourselves, and act?
     - by Gary Lawless, quoted in Radical Acceptance, by Tara Brach

Spend a moment or two with horses and they'll let you know that they're aware. Their ears swivel forward - or back. They reach their muzzles toward you or whirl and hightail it to some more comfortable spot. They don't speak our language, but, if you know how to listen, they don't have to. Pay attention, and they'll tell you a thousand stories about the world and everything in it. They'll also tell you about yourself and what's already - and potentially - in you.

In her book, Radical Acceptance, clinical psychologist and mindfulness instructor Tara Brach offers ideas and practices for listening more deeply to ourselves and connecting compassionately with all living things. Since horses in particular can spark such strong feelings in us - from love and joy to worry and terror - keeping an open heart can sometimes help us more clearly hear our four-legged friends' true stories, songs, and questions.

Looking for more ways for you and your horse would like to ride more peacefully, live more sustainably, or join - or lead - the charge toward saving the world? Browse the post Celebrate Earth Day Every Day to find stirring and spurring books for kids, teens, and adults who love horses and this hay-mazing planet we share.

Nighthorses and Other Rogues: Rider at the Gate and Cloud's Rider, by C.J. Cherryh

Cloud was uneasy, Danny thought, and saw the twitch of Cloud's ears, the backward slant of them that accompanied a thought of {clouds gathering gray and dark. Clouds flashing with lightnings.}
     {Cloud in the den last night, Cloud with images of high hills.}
     {Lightnings flashing. Wind blowing.}
     Danny shivered. He slapped Cloud with his hand to distract him. "Don't be like that. They're older, is all, you silly sheep. Don't pick a fight. There's three of them."
     {Rain falling on the riders ahead. Soaking rain.}
     Cloud wasn't happy with the riders or their horses. He wasn't sure Cloud understood what they were after, coming out here, except the chance to go into the highlands - which Cloud did approve.
     Cloud, he thought on the instant, didn't see any real reason to be following the tails of three other horses. Cloud could take him where he wanted to go. Cloud didn't need a guide.
     - from Rider at the Gate, by C.J. Cherryh

Would you trust Cloud? You're one of a few thousand remaining descendants of the space-faring human colonists who crashed on this savage planet. Most of the others have barricaded themselves inside high-walled cities in a desperate attempt to survive not only the brutal winter, but the telepathic predators that wait outside the cities' gates.

Like the one you're sitting on. A nighthorse. An equine-like creature who chose you - specifically you - for your dreams, your nature, or some other secret, indescribable trait. Because nighthorses, like all the planet's indigenous creatures, are telepathically connected to one another, to the planet's ambient, and, if one chooses, to a Rider. Once a nighthorse chooses you, it will be your friend - your stubborn, self-absorbed, snack-mooching friend - and if you can master it or mollify it, coax it or somehow reach a real, mutual understanding, together you're free to risk your lives to travel the roads and roam the Wild.

But there's a price besides your life. Emotions influence the minds of everyone connected to the ambient. Whatever a human, nighthorse, or more monstrous thing may be thinking can build and spread until it drives everyone to insanity. Right now, grieving border rider Guil Stuart and his nighthorse, Burn, are chasing the the rogue nighthorse they believe killed Guil's beloved, Aby Graves, and her nighthorse, Moon. Two groups of Riders are pursuing Guil. One is bent on saving him, the other is bent on killing him, and both are willing to force young Danny Fisher and his new mount, Cloud, to help them do it. And somewhere in the dark, the rogue is running, calling out for a human who will answer and match his loneliness, despair, and city-flattening rage.

You, too, will be caught up in Rider at the Gate and Cloud's Rider. The narration is vivid and intense, but the details are limited to what each chapter’s central character knows and cares about, so you, too, feel like you’ve been dropped onto this strange planet and swept into the dreams, storms, passions, and rivalries that swirl around it. Then you recognize the horses in the nighthorses: those mercurial but loyal, rude but kind, exasperating but endearing beasts who are somehow familiar as siblings yet utterly alien. It’s impossible to trust them, impossible not to. The whole effect is unnerving and disorienting in the best possible way. As you read, you find yourself leaning in closer to the humans and the nighthorses, but, wait, should you? What's really calling in that high, cold wind?

Rider at the Gate and Cloud's Rider offer a thoroughly engrossing tale for young adult and older Rider-types whose eyes flash with the light of distant galaxies. They're also an engaging introduction to author C.J. Cherryh's 60+ science fiction novels and short stories, which include three Hugo Award winners and several other honored titles. A visionary whose influence has spanned decades as well as universes, in 2001, astronomers even named an asteroid after Cherryh, saying, "She has challenged us to be worthy of the stars by imagining how mankind might grow to live among them." Thanks to Rider and Cloud, not only might we reach the stars, we might just find our horses there, too.

The Unicorn Who'll Make You Want to Do an Interpretive Dance about Rainbows: The Paranormalcy Trilogy, by Kiersten White

The bad news: You and I are wicked late to the Paranormalcy party.

The good news: The party's still raging, and for Faerie-crazed horse-lovers, the last book in the trilogy gives a perfect - and thrillingly explainable - reason for tying a party-hat, unicorn-style, to your forehead and doing an interpretive dance about rainbows.

I should start with Evie, the 16 year old ace agent of the International Paranormal Containment Agency who chases down rogue "paranormals" - vampires, werewolves, the occasional hag - drawing on her unique ability to see through the illusions they use to hide among humans. Unique being the key word: no one else, human or otherwise, can see paranormals like Evie does. So when something starts killing paranormals, Evie starts hunting it - but every step brings her closer to uncovering a secret about her own past that could destroy both the human and Faerie worlds.

What elevates the Paranormalcy trilogy from that Electric Slide amount of awesome to a Gangnam Style level of mania-making is author Kiersten White's hilarious and captivating re-imagining of fantasy tropes. I can't bear to spoil the story for you, so here are just the first two paragraphs from Paranormalcy's page one:

     "Wait - did you - You just yawned!" The vampire's arms, raised over his head in the classic Dracula pose, dropped to his sides. He pulled his exaggerated white fangs back behind his lips. "What, imminent death isn't exciting enough for you?"
     "Oh, stop pouting. But, really, the widow's peak? The pale skin? The black cape? Where did you even get that thing, a costume store?"

Yet between Gangnam and a rainbow dance, there lies a chasm too wide for even an invisible horse to leap. For that, you need Kiersten White's unicorn, who makes his appearance in the third book, Endlessly. He is ugly. He is stinky. He is more than a little bit insecure. And then:

      "With one last bat of its gunk-crusted eyelashes, [the unicorn] lowered its head and put its stubby horn against my ankle. I cringed, waiting for pain, but felt instead tingling warmth spread out, almost like having butterflies in my stomach. Only in my ankle. Butterflies ...with rainbows.
      The feeling of wholeness and well-being spread up my leg into my entire body, and I couldn't stop grinning. The forest was beautiful! The tree branches, naked against the brightening sky, held unimaginable wonders. [...] I was so happy! And rainbows! Why did I keep thinking of rainbows? Who cared! Rainbows were totally awesome!
      ...I shook my head, scattering the idiotic warm fuzzies that had invaded. "Whoa," I said [...] "That's enough of that." [...] I stood, testing my ankle and relieved with the utter lack of pain. I still had an irrational desire to do an interpretive dance about rainbows, but it was a small price to pay for being healed."

But it isn't! There's more! And it's awesome and rainbows! Grab your party hat and Paranormalcy books and give the couch a shove; you're going to need to some serious space for interpretive dancing. Oh, and you'll need tissues, too, and maybe your old stuffed-toy unicorn, because the trilogy's ultimate ending will make you cry glitter and sprinkles and stars.

The Paranormalcy trilogy is a fun, fizzy read for fantasy fans age 13+. Pair it with other contemporary takes on myth and legend, like Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races, Robin McKinley's Pegasus, and Kate Thompson's The White Horse Trick, or with the classic fairy-tale retelling of the unicorn's story, Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn. 

Barn Dog Bulletin: Pilots N Paws Volunteer Pilots Fly Rescue Dogs, Cats, and Reptiles to Their Forever Homes

Turns out barn dogs' angels sometimes have steel wings. Through the charity Pilots N Paws, volunteer pilots fly rescue, shelter, and foster dogs and cats - okay, and reptiles, too! - to their new, forever homes. Offering this service allows animal adoption organizations to place their animals more widely, giving those wonderful dogs, cats, and reptiles a better chance of finding a family to love.



And, yeah, after you're finished hugging and sobbing all over your beloved barn dog, cat, or - what the heck - reptile, you can buy super-adorable PNP clothes and gear to help give those pets and those planes a lift!

Dressage for the Not-So-Perfect Horse: Riding through the Levels on the Peculiar, Opinionated, Complicated Mounts We All Love, by Janet Foy, via HorseGirlTV

Okay, dressage riders, put your hands over your horse's ears and lean in close.

You know how - shh! - your horse isn't quite perfect? Well, USEF S and FEI 4* dressage judge Janet Foy knows, too. But she isn't taking any points off your test today - instead, she's sharing her top tips, tenets, and solutions for Training Level through Grand Prix success in her new book, Dressage for the Not-So-Perfect Horse: Riding Through the Levels on the Peculiar, Opinionated, Complicated Mounts We All Love.

I review the book over on HorseGirlTV. If you aren't yet a HorseGirlTV fanatic, grab a couple of apples, a pitcher of peppermint tea, and your favorite human and equine friends. This award-winning Web channel carries the hottest equestrian news from around the world. If you love horses, you just can't help but tune in and tack up!

Stopped in Your Tracks: 'Heard NY' Brings Dancing Horses to Grand Central Terminal, by Melena Ryzik, via the NYT

It's enough to make you drop your quad espresso: at New York City's Grand Central Station, 30 brightly-colored raffia horses are grazing, rearing, and dancing among this week's morning commuters.

The performance is called "Heard NY." In her article for the NY Times, Watch Out for the Horses on Your Way to the Train, Melena Ryzik joins the stampede and interviews costume designer Nick Cave:

"The idea was to produce a dreamlike vision worth stopping for, Mr. Cave said, as people are rushing through the terminal. 'You’re stopped in your tracks,' he said, 'and then you do get on the train and you get home. How do you share this, how do you describe — just imagine, coming into Grand Central and you run into 30 horses? That’s when it becomes this transformative moment.'"

A Life with Horses, at Any Size: The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts, by Hanne Blank

     "Our culture often expects women in general, and fat women in particular, to confine and limit themselves. We are often discouraged, in many different ways, from moving freely, playfully, and happily in the world. We're not supposed to take up space and be visible and spontaneous and dynamic, colorful or loud or boisterous or rambunctious. Heaven knows we're not supposed to be fierce, physically unafraid, and fully aware of our own physical power. To which I say: screw that."
     - from The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts, by Hanne Blank

How many women do you know who, no matter what their size, consider themselves fat?

How many women do you know who have held themselves back from joyful movement, fun activities, and other great opportunities because of the way they looked - or how they expected to be treated because of the way they looked?

In The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts, author Hanne Blank offers women friendly, fearless, and hilarious advice for how to take back your right to move. Not for the purpose of losing weight, not to fit some pre-packaged social prejudice, but just to fully enjoy your body. Blank, who describes herself as "actually, honest-to-God, Lane-Bryant-shoppin', ...nasty-comments-from-random-strangers-gettin', fat" offers a gentle but assertive, body-confident process for getting and staying active. Taking it one step at a time, starting with Refuse to Apologize for Having a Body and Have Your Own Reasons for Doing the Things You Do, Blank explains how to find movement that feels great, clothing that fits great, questions to ask so that your experience is great, and courteous but utterly unapologetic responses to "haters," jerks, and other assorted crazies. As she says,

"No one deserves to learn, or God forbid be actively taught, that she is an unworthy and unacceptable human being who should not participate in a full and physical life. No one should be so bullied and harassed for what they are that they learn to voluntarily shrink their lives and limit their activities, refuse to let themselves do things they want and need to do, or refrain from doing things that bring them pleasure and health in order to cut down on the amount of cruelty they encounter.

And no one should have to learn the bitter lesson that even if you do these things to minimize yourself, it doesn't actually protect you. Circumscribing your life to avoid harassment doesn't actually make the harassment vanish; it just means that you're circumscribing your life and being harassed. No one, no matter what they look like, actually deserves to be the target of opportunistic nastiness, not even if inwardly, they fear they really do deserve it. They don't. You don't."

I'm buying a copy of The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts for every gal I know, but for size-conscious teenage girls and women who are hesitant to pursue a life with horses, it's a particularly fantastic book. Once your favorite horse-lover has read it, she might want to explore the hay-mazing variety and diversity of horse-centered movement activities, which include:

* Groundwork and halter classes
* Riding or driving a carriage or cart
* Studying horses' behavior and forming an enduring bond of friendship and trust with a horse
* Volunteering as a side-walker or other assistant in a therapeutic equestrian environment
* Grooming, crewing, or organizing at a horse show
* Working at, managing, or "greening" a barn
* Photographing horses
* Attending an equine event like the Old Sturbridge Village Sleigh Rally or visiting an equine "theme park" like the Kentucky Horse Park
* Drawing on her particular talents, strengths, and interests to accomplish a personal or community goal with horses

Ladies, your body belongs to you. No one has any right to tell you how it should look, or what you can and can't do with it. Be gorgeous, be luscious, be whatever you are. No matter what your size, if you want have a life with horses, go for it! And why not start on that trail today?

Live Discussion with Laura Munson, Author of This Is Not the Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness at BookTrib.com

     "[It's like my Morgan] senses that I need calm. When I am on my horse, the rest of the world falls away except for the exact place where his feet touch the ground. It's the most religious practice I've known; it's where the prayers don't beg. They surrender and receive. It's that place of true nature I've been seeking all my life. Freedom. I find myself chanting "Thank you" with each of his steps, hoof to forest floor."
     - from This Is Not the Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness, by Laura Munson 

After 15 years of marriage, Laura Munson's husband said to her, "I don't love you anymore. I don't think I ever did." But Munson's reply was even more shocking. "I don't buy it," she said. With cautious but open hearts - and with a wise, wonderful Morgan horse - they found their way back to each other, a journey that Munson chronicles in her thought-provoking book, This Is Not the Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness.

Today, at 3.30 pm EST, Laura Munson will be offering a free live discussion at BookTrib.com. During the Q&A, participants can ask Laura questions, and some will receive free copies of the book! So check out my review of This Is Not the Story You Think It Is on BookTrib and trot on over to join the discussion with Laura Munson - I'll see you there!

365 Fictional Things to Do Before You Die: Ride a Winged Horse

Invited to write for the blog 365 Fictional Things to Do Before You Die, Pegasus and I instantly agreed on one essential experience: riding a winged horse. Pegasus gave the inside scoop on these flighty creatures' lives and habits. So keep both eyes on the sky and both hands on your breakfast pastries. These aren't your Mother Goose's winged horses!

365 Fictional Things to Do Before You Die: Ride a Winged Horse

Climb on the back of a winged horse, and any world you wish will roll out beneath you. Your hands knotted in flowing mane as soft and strong as silk, your own hair blowing like the Hollywood movie Hollywood dreams of making, you’ll fly as far, as fast, and as near forever as you dare to go. Ride a winged horse, a Pegasus, the legendary steed of inspiration, and even Death might twitch back his long fingers for a moment and wave as you soar overhead.

First things first: ignore the soap opera sagas of sensitive heroes who claim to have roamed across continents for decades without so much as hearing an equine snicker overhead. Horsefeathers. Finding winged horses is easy. They preen eternally outside Assyrian palaces and relentlessly kick the butts of poets at the summit of Mount Helicon in Greece. A herd of chestnut pegasi hang out at old Mobil gas stations, buffeting the vending machines with their wings to score free soda pop and filching doughnuts from drivers too distracted to notice them gliding down silently from the station signs.

Ever wonder where that second Sno Ball went? Now you know.

You’ll also find winged horses closer to home, mixing unremarked with ordinary equines. There’s one at almost every barn, hanging its head over a stall door plastered with crayoned pictures or festooned with well-cared-for (often purple) tack. Entire herds live at centers for riders with special needs. For these children, teens, and adults, the pegasi set aside their caprice. For them, they stand as steady and round as the sky they come from, glide as smoothly as clouds, and bend their proud necks, gratefully, to be hugged.

Scholars have speculated about why the pegasi have come to live among us. One camp believes it’s because, at some point in her life, every girl in the history of the world has shrieked “PONY!” and tied pink ribbons in mane of any winged horse who would stand still long enough. The other insists it’s because every boy has whispered in a velvet ear that his mount is the smartest, fastest, doggone best horse ever, and meant it.

You can ride a pegasus, too. If you’re a lucky sort, you’ll be able to catch one with nothing more than an outstretched hand, even in open country. If not, just bring something interesting to do: something small and fussy and absorbing. Cat’s cradle. Knitting. A stamp collection, particularly on a windy day. A pegasus hates to be ignored. The minute you stop thinking of it, it will immediately prance over to you and demand your attention.

Well, it will demand doughnuts, but that’s about the same thing.

Yes, in the literature, there’s lots of talk about golden bridles and iron halters. Chuck it. It’s impossible to harness a pegasus. It will only let you ride – for love (often of sugar), out of grace, or on a whim – and that knowledge alone has been enough to drive good poets mad. So don’t think about it. Just climb absent-mindedly, carelessly on its back – however studious and neurotic you have to be to do so – have a doughnut, and enjoy the view.

Warnings: Keep your head and hands inside the ride at all times. Do not attempt to challenge the gods. Don’t try to trick the Pegasus, either. An 8-year-old girl can tie them up with ribbons, but they can’t be caught, they can only be loved and let go. Don’t pinch with your knees. Fling open your hands, open your heart, and fly.

Read the rest of the essay at the blog 365 Fictional Things to Do Before You Die...

Enter Britain's Magical School for Kids Enchanted by Horses: The Fetlocks Hall Series - The Unicorn Princess, The Ghostly Blinkers, Curse of the Pony Vampires, and The Enchanted Pony - by Babette Cole

Ten-year-old Penny Simms seems like an ordinary horse-crazy kid. She pores over pony magazines, works at a local stable to earn a weekly riding lesson, and dreams of attending the British equestrian boarding school, Fetlocks Hall. But when Penny wins a scholarship to Fetlocks Hall, she learns two extraordinary secrets: Fetlocks Hall is the gateway to the magical world of Equitopia, and Penny herself is Equitopia's one hundredth Unicorn Princess. Together with her friends and teachers - which include not only kids, adults, and horses but unicorns, centaurs, and ghosts - Princess Penny must protect both Equitopia and the human world from spiteful Devlipeds, treacherous kelpies, and ravenous pony vampires.

Quirky, lively, and utterly delightful, the four-book Fetlocks Hall series is full of enough starlight and rainbows, magical creatures, true horse facts, and glorious riding - from moonlit flights on enchanted ponies to gymkhana, polo, and eventing competitions, from blissful trail rides with unicorns through pink-blossoming apple trees to the Grand National steeplechase - to enchant even the horse-craziest girls ages 6-11. Author and illustrator Babette Cole is a lifelong horsewoman as well as the creator of more than 70 award-winning children's books, and in these books, her talents dovetail, lifting the stories like a unicorn's wings. Every horse-related detail is accurate. Each pen-and-ink illustration has an irresistible charm. (Wait until you see the cuddly, slightly startled-looking pony vampires-turned-Veggipires. I don't think I've giggled since *I* was six, but I collapsed in fits of giggles over them, and I still wish the childlike wish that I could bring one home! :) ) Yet within the madcap escapades, Cole also keeps a gentle but steady emphasis on fairness and friendship, revealing the genuinely magical truths that people, horses, and situations aren't always what they seem, and that trouble can sometimes be turned to triumph with courage, patience, and care.

Published by Bloomsbury, who brought the world Britain's "other" magical school and its young guardian, J.K. Rowling's Hogwarts and Harry Potter, the Fetlocks Hall books shine from the sparkling stars on their covers to their merry and light-hearted ends. Whether your readers are experienced young equestrians or simply play ponies and unicorns at recess, they'll find a fantastic "spell" of adventures at Fetlocks Hall!

Fetlocks Hall #1: The Unicorn Princess. Earning a scholarship to the magical equestrian boarding school Fetlocks Hall and discovering the secret, magical world of Equitopia is only the beginning of Penny Simms' adventure. Penny will have to pass seven tests to be crowned Equitopia's Unicorn Princess, and she must lead her friends to foil the scheme of the wicked Devlipeds, who want to rule both Equitopia and the human world.

Fetlocks Hall #2: The Ghostly Blinkers. Fetlocks Hall is about to close, because the school is out of money. Penny will need to pair common horse-sense with her magical ability to talk with horses to figure out how to save the school - and then convince a few cantankerous and persnickety ghosts to help!

Fetlocks Hall #3: Curse of the Pony Vampires. The Devlipeds strike again, sending a herd of pony vampires to ruin Fetlocks Hall before an official school inspection. Can Penny and her friends turn the pony vampires into Veggipires before the inspectors arrive?

Fetlocks Hall #4: The Enchanted Pony. The parents of Penny's best friend, Pip, disappeared two years ago, and a rebellious young centaur, Princess Sophie, claims to know they are. Is Sophie leading Penny and her friends into greater danger, or will the people, ponies, and magical creatures of Fetlocks Hall be able to save Pip's parents together?

Books like the Fetlocks Hall series can inspire kids to want to learn how to ride. One great equestrian organization mentioned in Fetlocks Hall is Pony Club, an international network of riding clubs whose goal is to teach horse-lovers through age 25 the skills of riding, horse care, and horsemanship while promoting sportsmanship, teamwork, and sound character. Learn more about Pony Club at the United Kingdom Pony Club website, the United States Pony Club website, and other countries' Pony Club websites and begin your own "magical" horse adventure!

Celebrate Earth Day Every Day: Top Ten Books on Green Riding, Sustainable Living, and How Equestrians Can Save the World

Don't wait for April 22: if you and your horse would like to ride greener, live more sustainably, or join - or lead - the charge toward saving the world, check out these ten books that help horse-loving kids, teens, and adults celebrate Earth Day every day!

1. The Green Guide for Horse Owners and Riders: Sustainable Practices for Horse Care, Stable Management, Land Use, and Riding, by Heather Cook: (Teens, Adults) Changing the world has never been so easy. If you care for - or just care about! - horses, you can use the tips and techniques, success stories, ideas, and inspiration that Cook offers in this superbly researched, comprehensive guide to transform your riding, your farm, and your town - and to imagine and gallop into a greener future.

2. Eco-Horsekeeping: Over 100 Budget-Friendly Ways You and Your Horse Can Save the Planet, by Lucinda Dyer: (Teens, Adults) Keep the planet and your wallet full of green. Dyer's clever, quick swaps and innovative longer-term projects show equestrians how to save the Earth - and energy, time, and cash - without compromising on style, convenience, and fun.

3. Pets and the Planet: A Practical Guide to Sustainable Pet Care, by Carol Frischmann: (Teens, Adults) This nose-to-tail handbook on green care for cats, dogs, and other small animal companions will help you ensure that the Earth loves your Jack Russells and barn cats as much as you do.

4. The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth, by John and Sophie Javna: (Kids, Teens, Adults) Now updated for the 21st century, this internationally best-selling classic gives kids pint-sized but powerful tools for exploring, understanding, and protecting the planet. (Pair 50 Simple Things with book #10, Emma Dilemma, The Nanny, and The Best Horse Ever, to show young horse lovers how equestrianism and eco-consciousness can go hand-in-hoof!)

 5. Ecotourists Save the World: The Environmental Volunteer's Guide to More Than 300 International Adventures to Conserve, Preserve, and Rehabilitate Wildlife and Habitats, by Pamela Brodowsky and the National Wildlife Federation: (Kids, Teens, Adults) Why stop saving the world at the pasture fence? With these detailed listings of global volunteer opportunities, internships, and adventure travel, you and your family can make an enduring difference in the world's most endangered places.

6. Living Green: The Missing Manual, by Nancy Conner: (Teens, Adults) Tweak an old habit or overhaul your entire life with the environmentally friendly solutions and suggestions in this omnibus guide to green living, working, and home care. From opening (or closing) a window to building a greener house, business, or investment portfolio, anyone - and everyone - can contribute to a better today, and a more sustainable tomorrow.

7. Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating, by Jane Goodall: (Teens, Adults) You are what you eat, and so is our planet. Eminent conservationist and United Nations Messenger of Peace Jane Goodall describes the farming, fishing, food production, transport, and eating practices that are damaging our and our planet's health and explains how we can grow, choose, and eat food that helps both people and the planet thrive.

8. Tomorrow's Garden: Design and Inspiration for a New Age of Sustainable Gardening, by Stephen Orr: (Kids, Teens, Adults) Gardeners, don't choose between sustainable and spectacular this season! Let Martha Stewart Living gardening guru Stephen Orr show you how to create magazine-cover-gorgeous gardens that naturally spotlight and support your local environment, whether you're designing an urban oasis, a suburban backyard, or a beautiful and productive addition to a horse farm.

9. How to Save Your Neighborhood, City, or Town, by Maritza Pick: (Teens, Adults) Someone has to take the reins on local change: why not you? Try this Sierra Club text to learn about community organizing and how to start taking action.

10. Emma Dilemma, The Nanny, and the Best Horse Ever by Patricia Hermes (Kids) and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver: (Teens, Adults) Wish you had a "trail buddy" to ride the road to greener living? Emma Dilemma and her dream horse, Rooney, pair eco-consciousness and comic chaos for kids, while Barbara Kingsolver's memoir of her and her family's year of local eating provides a friendly, four-season companion for teens and adults.

Winter-Broken, Horses and All: The Runaway, by Robert Frost

Just over a century ago in New England, the month of October closed with a trill of sleigh bells. The snow was so deep that people and packages were already by traveling by sleigh instead of by carriage, and the weather was so crisp and inviting that sleigh races were the season's most popular sporting events. In 1857, composer James Lord Pierpont wrote a tribute to the season: the song Jingle Bells, celebrating "what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh."

This year in New England, temperatures hovered around 60 degrees through January. Even after each of our region's two superstorms, the mercury rose to 40 and 50 degrees after a few days. Our horses, like us, are bewildered. The climate is changing; winter is broken, and none of us know what to do.

That sense of world-sized whiplash reminded me of The Runaway, a 1918 poem by Robert Frost. Our problem is not as easy to fix as this foal's, but equestrians and anyone who happens to like living on this planet of ours can still clatter over to the Earth Day Network, TreeHugger, and the Earth Day book list to join the discussion and help bring about positive change for all.

The Runaway
by Robert Frost

Once when the snow of the year was beginning to fall,
We stopped by a mountain pasture to say, “Whose colt?”
A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall,
The other curled at his breast. He dipped his head
And snorted to us. And then he had to bolt.
We heard the miniature thunder where he fled,
And we saw him, or thought we saw him, dim and gray,
Like a shadow against the curtain of falling flakes.
"I think the little fellow’s afraid of the snow.
He isn't winter-broken. It isn't play
With the little fellow at all. He’s running away.
I doubt if even his mother could tell him, 'Sakes,
It’s only weather.' He'd think she didn’t know!
Where is his mother? He can't be out alone."
And now he comes again with clatter of stone,
He mounts the wall again with whited eyes
And all his tail that isn't hair up straight
He shudders his coat as if to throw off flies.
“Whoever it is that leaves him out so late,
When other creatures have gone to stall and bin,
Ought to be told to come and take him in.”

Does Your Horse Really Love You? The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy - and Why They Matter, by Marc Bekoff

Does your horse really love you? Are your dogs sincerely sad when you're away? In The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy - and Why They Matter, internationally renowned biologist Dr. Marc Bekoff pairs scientific research with poignant true stories to make a persuasive case for the existence of emotions in animals.

"...[A]nimals feel," states Bekoff in the book's first paragraph, "and their emotions are as important to them as ours are to us." In the 130+ meticulously-endnoted pages that follow, he documents and interprets expressions of love, anger, joy, and grief - as well as empathy, fairness, and morality - in animals ranging from horses and dogs to elephants, chimpanzees, whales, octopuses, and leeches. (Yes, leeches love.) Yet he never turns animals into Disney-esque caricatures. Instead, he speaks candidly about the challenges of studying animals' emotions, and he describes the seismic change in personal perspective that the research triggered in him.

"We know that there are two-, three-, and four-chambered organs we call hearts because they pump blood. Just because the heart of a frog doesn’t look like the heart of an eagle or of a human doesn’t mean that a frog doesn’t have a heart," Bekoff writes. "Similarly, just because dog-joy and chimpanzee-joy and human-joy aren’t exactly the same doesn’t mean that any of these animals don’t experience joy. ...I always remember that my view of their world is not necessarily their view of their world, but the closer I can get to their view ….the better I might be able to understand it.”

This understanding offers readers the opportunity to consider - and reconsider - how we interact with our companion animals and pets, with our food, research, zoo, and working animals, and with animals in the wild. Since animals have no voice and no power in human society, we are their only guardians, their only advocates, and we are responsible for how they are treated. It's a tremendous responsibility, but with it comes the equally tremendous ability to create positive change in their lives. Even our smallest choices, Bekoff concludes, can make the world a better and more compassionate place for animals - and for us.

"...Where there is a mind, there are feelings such as pain, pleasure, and joy," His Holiness the Dalai Lama writes in his review of the book. "No sentient beings want pain; instead, all want happiness. Since we all share these feelings at some basic level, as rational human beings we have an obligation to contribute in whatever way we can to the happiness of other species and try our best to relieve their fears and sufferings. I firmly believe that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes. Therefore, I welcome Marc Bekoff's book, The Emotional Lives of Animals."

Read The Emotional Lives of Animals today. Tomorrow, you'll know how to make the world a better place for the animals you love who, yes, might very well love you back.

To learn more about Dr. Marc Bekoff's award-winning work in animal emotions, ethics, and the human-animal connection, visit his website, attend one of his lectures, and check out his books, The Smile of a Dolphin: Remarkable Accounts of Animal Emotions, Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals, and his book for young readers, Animals at Play. Also watch for him in the Discovery Channel's Why Dogs Smile and Chimpanzees Cry and National Geographic's Play: The Nature of the Game.

Inside the Extreme Mustang Makeover: Gentling Cheatgrass, by Sterry Butcher, in America’s Best Sports Writing 2011, edited by Jane Leavy

     "Teryn Lee [Muench] was among 130 people who signed up this spring for the Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover, a contest in which trainers are given 100 days to take feral horses from the Bureau of Land Mangaement (BLM), gentle these creatures, and teach them to accept grooming, leading saddling, and riding. Don’t let the silliness of the contest’s name distract from the difficulty of the challenge. Domestic horses can be taught to walk, trot, and lope under saddle in 100 days; it’s called being green-broke. But domestic horses are usually familiar with people. The mustangs in the Makeover have lived on the range for years without human interaction, surviving drought, brutal winters, and trolling mountain lions. The only connection they have to people is fear..."
      - from Gentling Cheatgrass, by Sterry Butcher, from America's Best Sports Writing 2011

It's one of the most incredible transformations on television: more demanding than Dancing with the Stars, more dangerous than Survivor, and infinitely more enduring than The Bachelor or Bachelorette. During the 100-day Extreme Mustang Makeover, horse trainers across America turn wild mustangs into riding partners so trusty that the horses can be adopted by members of the public.

In Gentling Cheatgrass, reporter and Stanford University Knight Fellow Sterry Butcher follows Oklahoma horseman Teryn Lee Muench as he collects the mustang he'll call Cheatgrass, starts him, and competes with him for the $50,000 grand prize. Like the Makeover itself, the article explains the plight of the American mustang, illustrates the extraordinary kindness, consistency, and expertise it takes to guide a wild horse into a life as a human's companion, and paints the mustang's history and spirit in such rich, bright colors that it's easy to see how, as Butcher writes, "Their glory stirred souls."



Having first been published in Texas Monthly, Gentling Cheatgrass was selected for The Best American Sports Writing 2011, edited by Jane Leavy. The Extreme Mustang Makeover continues today - as does the debate on how, and even if, the American West can support these glorious horses. So whether you're an expert trainer or just love horses, you, too, can make a difference in the lives of mustangs: together, we can turn their connection to us from fear to trust, and give them a future as broad and inviting as the open horizon of the Plains.

Love Stories and Poetry for Horse People: A Valentine's Day Collection

If you love a horse or a horse-person, celebrate Valentine's Day - or any day! - with these stories and poems about love and friendship.

Poetry
* All in Green, by e.e. cummings
* Eros and Equus (collection of poetry and story excerpts), edited by Laura Chester
* Horses and Men in Rain, by Carl Sandburg
* Reverie, by Walter de la Mare
* Say This of Horses (poetry collection), edited by C.E. Greer and Jenny Kander
* Venus and Adonis, by William Shakespeare
* The White Horse, by D.H. Lawrence

Novels
* The Blessings of the Animals, by Katrina Kittle
* Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
* Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
* The Hearts of Horses, by Molly Gloss
* Horseplay, by Judy Reene Singer
* The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
* Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen


Nonfiction
* Horses with a Mission: Extraordinary True Stories of Equine Service, by Allen and Linda Anderson
* This is Not the Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness, by Laura Munson

* Women Are from Venus and So Are Their Horses: A Grown Man's Musings on the Opposite Sex in the Saddle, by Menno Kalman

Stories for Kids
* The Black Stallion, by Walter Farley
* Cinderella, by Charles Perrault
* Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa (series), by Erica Silverman
* The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses and Mystic Horse, by Paul Goble
* My Friend Flicka, by Mary O'Hara
* Ponyella, by Laura Numeroff
* Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom, by Jennifer Holland

Rooting for the Clydesdales or the Puppies? A Horse Lover's Guide to Super Bowl Sunday

The greatest, toughest competition of the American gridiron is here! It's Super Bowl Sunday, and viewers from coast to coast must decide which team they'll root for: the Budweiser Clydesdales and their new baby brother, or the Animal Planet Puppy Bowl adoptable puppies and hedgehog cheerleaders.

Check out the Budweiser Super Bowl ad, Brotherhood, and ABC's fascinating in-depth article on the horses' breeding and training - and dare yourself not to start tweeting names for their adorable foal to Budweiser's Name the Foal contest.



Next up? Tune into Animal Planet at 3 pm EST for Puppy Bowl IX!  Two teams of puppies will go kissably-furry-head to huggably-fluffy-head in a mock football game, with hedgehogs providing the cheerleading and kittens dancing for the halftime show.

 The show also scores its own two-point conversion. All of the animals are recruited from shelters, and since the Puppy Bowl's debut in 2004, more than 250 have trotted off the field into new homes. "It's really a call to action," said Puppy Bowl executive producer, Melinda Toporoff, in an interview with CNN. "We want to raise awareness for shelters everywhere and get more puppies adopted."



Who to root for? It's no contest. What horse lover isn't cheering for them all!

The Socialite Whisperer: Horseplay, by Judy Reene Singer

Oh. My. Novel. Judy Reene Singer's Horseplay takes the cake. Or, really, the frosting. Of which I ate an entire can while reading the book. (Chocolate fudge. With a fork. Without even a smackerel of guilt.) Yes, the story is that ridiculously freeing and deliciously fun: don't worry about the calories because you'll laugh so hard, you'll burn them all off, and by the end of the book, you won't care anyway.

After her husband cheats on her for the third time, 33-year-old Judy Van Brunt decides to leave him and pursue the one thing she does still love: riding. She quits her job teaching and drives 600 miles to North Carolina to be a working student at a ritzy dressage barn, but she finds that, even there, she hasn't outrun crazy. Her sister, "Saint Ruth of the Perfect Life," badgers her to go back to her husband and medicate herself out of her marriage problems, while the barn's neurotic trainer, the irritable barn manager, and the Queen of Snobby Dressage Riders client goad her to give up on horses. As Judy struggles to make a place for herself at the barn, a mystery unfolds at the property's edge that entangles her, the local super-stud, a caped clinician who is more "socialite whisperer" than horse whisperer, and a pair of Jack Russells who might very well be the masterminds behind it all. And that's only the beginning of the chaos.

Thankfully, Judy finds true, if wacky, new friends in the three women with whom she shares the apartment above the barn. Though the world downstairs may demand perfection - in their riding, in their looks, and in their lives - together, the four women ride passionately, eat fearlessly, and get themselves into - and out of - every kind of imaginable and impossible trouble. Singer's zany characters and madcap plot are a carnival mirror reflection of the sometimes bizarre realities of competitive dressage, but Singer pushes them even further, exaggerating each caricature until you can't help but see the truth: sweetly or maddeningly, sometimes life is just silly, and often it's best to follow your heart and let yourself have fun.

Horseplay is the perfect book whenever you need a belly laugh, a dressage whip, and your very own can of frosting. Silverware is optional. Guilt is forbidden. And you can read the first three chapters for free on Amazon. Honestly, what more are you waiting for?

Have you finished - or did you already love - Horseplay? Then check out Judy Reene Singer's latest novels, both of which include horse-people, horses, and an unusual new kind of four-legged friend: Still Life with Elephant and An Inconvenient Elephant.

Horse Writers, a Call for Submissions! Western Press Books "Manifest West" Anthology on the Contemporary Cowboy

Writers, round up your pencils! Western State Colorado University's Western Press Books announced a call for submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for Manifest West, their upcoming anthology on the contemporary cowboy. Suggested topics include (but are not limited to):

* the modern day working cowboy
* the rodeo cowboy
* the urban cowboy
* the weekend warrior cowboy
* the arena riding cowboy
* the wheeler-and-dealer-at-every-auction-sale cowboy
* the country music star cowboy

Read the complete announcement at WSCU's Manifest West page, and herd your best five poems or essays/stories up to 7,000 words into the Western State Press Submittable site by the February 20th deadline.

Good luck and happy trails!