Next?

I've been reading a great book called Half Broke Horses. I cannot wait to start a new journey. As is said, "When a window closes, a door opens." I reckon sometimes you gotta give it a kick to get it open but I can do that. I will ride across Michigan up north again this year. I long for those days when there were few cars and lots of well worn horse trails from town to town, a day's ride between each. I look for the sun each day and when it appears, I get in my truck and head for the stable and jump on my horse and head for the woods. I missed the trees out west and the water. I'll never forget being stuck in a bog on my horse. Scariest thing ever. Horse just sunk into muck and mire that looked like firm ground. She began to struggle and almost went over on her side which would have perhaps been the end of things. I hung on, bareback. I talked quietly to her. "Easy girl, easy." My heart was coming out of my chest. I know she feels this so I take a purposeful deep breath. She powered up and out. I could see the whites of her eyes but my urging and insistence that I not panic so she would not brought us both out. Her name is Grace and there's a reason for that I believe. We were Graced that day. There's something to be said for surviving the unexpected pitfalls and bogs in this world that try to suck you under. Makes the world's colors so much brighter and the feeling of being alive so acute.

So on I go. I hope to ride the Kit Carson National Forest this season too. There are still places where horses and riders are the only ones out there, besides the song of the coyote and the sight of elk grazing in the wide open expanses.

And oh, how I long for the easy stride of my horse and the gallop on the wind of the plains.

Spring will come.

I'm ready for NEXT!