Horse Illustrated Magazine

When I was pregnant with my first child, I worried: Will I loathe the baby if he keeps me from my horse?

Fortunately, life juggling kids and horses has been nothing like my gloomy, fretful forecast. Yes, I’m on a shorter rein when it comes to getting to the barn. But a new balance has taken over. Life has a choppier cadence now (think posting trot versus cantering), but it’s one I can work with.

One thing I do miss, though, is having more flexibility to be at the barn in the evenings. I love that time of day. I used to leave work in the late afternoon and drive straight from downtown DC to the barn. I’d change out flats and skirts for boots and britches. After a quick tack up, my horse and I would head off into the dusky woods for some down time on the buckle (without a care about what was to be made for dinner and who hadn’t done their homework).

One of the things I loved most about those quiet evening rides was the wildlife. As the evening shadows crept over the C&O Canal that runs along the Potomac River, we’d see beavers building, muskrats swimming, deer browsing, and sometimes even a chubby ground hog scuttling for its hole. My horse didn’t always love a flapping great blue heron swooshing over his head, but I loved those encounters.

Late yesterday afternoon, I did a bit of a flying lead change and escaped to the barn instead of watching the little league baseball game on the family schedule. I cleaned my tack on the picnic table, visited with my horse and enjoyed the sounds of the birds. The horses in the field were quiet – rolling and cropping cool grass and enjoying each other’s company. Two birds bathed in the automatic waterer. I loved watching the shadows slowly stretch from one end of the pasture to the other. Now, that’s my kind of home run.

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