Sunday, January 28, 2007

All the Pretty Horses

For as long as I've been living on my own I've wanted my own property so I can look out my windows and see my horses, right there in my yard. It's been that one dream I've been working towards for well over a decade.

I finally achieved it. Hubby and I have a cute little house on 13 secluded acres, woods, creek, pond, long-ass driveway far away from neighbors. It's almost exactly what we had been searching for for the last year or so. I never thought we'd find it and there were times when I just wanted to give up, buy a house in town and board my horses at someone else's barn.

The only thing we don't have yet are horses. My wonderful mare died last Mother's Day and I haven't found another yet. I am looking but I think finding a good equine partner is even harder than finding a good husband. There is more to it than that, though. When we bought this property it was fenced entirely in barbed wire, so all that had to come down. The weeds in the pastures were waist high or higher and those had to be cleared. The previous owners were, ummm, let's just say they were less than stellar stewards of the land, and we've been clearing garbage and junk from every corner of the land since we moved in. Most of the fence was hidden by weeds and overgrown with brambles and trees. I have cleared more brambles from my property than I ever thought possible! Hence the name we've attached to our little piece of heave: Bramblewood Acres. Catchy eh?

Next weekend my land will be graced by the four hooves of the equine kind. This newest addition to our family embedded himself into Unruly's heart shortly after Star, my mare, died. We leased him for a few months so I would have a horse to smell and brush and ride while grieving the loss of my own partner and Unruly quickly adopted him as her own.

I think he adopted her, too.
This is Chief. He is old. He is steady. He is perfect for my daughter the horse freak.


Unruly is completely in love with him. He is all she can talk about. If he was a human boy, I'd be worried.


I can't wait to be able to sit at my kitchen table, or on my deck, and watch him peacefully grazing in my pasture as I sip a hot mug of coffee.

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