Day: December 9, 2014

This is what I’ve learned this past year and saw Monday in New York at the rally for the carriage horses at City Hall: Real Women Love Horses. Real women have formed a mystical ring around the carriage horses, I think they are fierce army to be reckoned with, an impenetrable band of love, connection, memory, empathy and commitment. They can fight hard and dirty too, if I were the mayor, I would have looked out of his office window and wet myself at the sight of them.

He has no idea who he is taking on by calling the people they love immoral and seeking to ruin their work and way of life.

I saw them everywhere Monday, I wanted to kiss all of them. Maria (who I did kiss) and Pamela (I kissed her too) and Randie (I think I got a kiss in there) and Eva (who was present in spirit)  and  Christina (a hug), Ava and Bernadette (a buss), Cathy (hug and kiss) and Nina (kiss) and Jill and Sandy and Alison and Jennifer (a kiss) and many more whose names I do not know. I hope to kiss each one of them and take their photos, I was scoring all over the place at City Hall.

Pamela Rickehback and Maria holding up their signs in front of City Hall crystallized this idea for me, they helped me to see it so clearly. Women are the engine that drives our connection to the animal world and the growing movement to help them survive with real right and genuine welfare.

Animals are acutely sensitive to emotion, they can smell and  sense our feelings about them, many women are more open emotionally than men, their nurturing instincts are stronger, they have always seen the value and need of animals in our world. But in recent years, they have also acquired the political skills and technology to make themselves felt on issues like the carriage horses.

What I was seeing Monday was – is – important and relevant. Women are changing our political and social structure, they are sparking the new social movement I believe will replace the disconnected and increasingly alienating movement that claims to speak for the rights of animals. We need to find a better way, one that respects animals and the people who live and work with them. I saw that in New York.

I attended both rallies – the animal rights rally and the carriage horse rally. What was most striking about the two rallies was that the first, the animal rights support of the ban, was utterly devoid of emotion. There was no laughter, no sadness, no passion, no conviction,  nothing but a sort of monotone and repetitive anger, the very rote repetition of all of the old charges – the horses are abused, they are dangerous, they need to graze to be happy, they are depressed, the carriage trade is monstrous and corrupt, there will be no victims if the horses are banned, everybody wins.

I am not an unbiased observer, but I am an experienced reporter. The rhetoric at the first rally was hollow and cold, the speakers didn’t really even seem to believe what they were saying.

About 90 per cent of the animal rights demonstrators were women, almost all in middle-age or late middle aged. But they are not like the women surrounding the carriage trade. They were unsmiling, there were no children, families or smiling people anywhere to be seen. I haven’t sorted out the difference, but it was quite evident, the atmosphere was grim, there is no other word for it. They seemed defeated to me, clustering together with their signs in front of the media to look like an army, when they were just a small and loud gathering.

I am not really the hug-and-kiss type, but I do love strong women, and there are many to love in the carriage horse controversy. Three carriage horse wives came up and kissed me for supporting them, it was good, it felt good. I had lipstick all over me, and wiped most of it off before Maria strangled me, she is not keen on too much kissing of other women.

Some of these women are carriage drivers, others are animal lovers, equine advocates, Teamsters, wives, neighbors, creatives, photographers, dog-walkers, writers and videographers, drawn to fight a perceived injustice, to help the carriage drivers keep their jobs and help keep animals in our world. Many are just amazing people. I had the sense of strength and individualism, and a passion for the right thing tempered with a lot of affection.

In a way, this controversy is a template for the wider world.

I doubt there would have been so many women at the fore of this struggle a decade ago, but today they are leading, they are out front: they are strategizing, picketing, working on social media, forming petitions, e-mailing and messaging supporters, challenging the opposition. They seek dialogue and negotiation, they are sensitive to the spirits and needs of animals,  yet they are not above clubbing people over the head and fighting if they lie or hurt the people they know and care for.

Watching these women – about a dozen of them spoke at the rally – I thought the the fate of the horses are in great hands, just the right hands. It is not possible to love animals and hate people, the two things are just not compatible, and I had the sense that these women know how to love and how to fight – two indispensable tools in modern media warfare.The women speaking had conviction and feeling, they were clear and compelling.

I felt the passion from these women and I felt great respect and affection for them. With them on their side, I believe the horses  will prevail. They get it.

The kisses were great too, a great way to stay warm on a freezing cold day, especially for an aging man in recovery.

A howling Northeaster has descended on the farm, Red and I went out to close up the chicken coop and check on the animals, and ran into one of those wind and snow storms that make you bow to nature and give thanks for a snug house, two good wood stoves and some vegetable pot pies. The barn cats are dozing inside, the dogs are huddled by the fire, so, shortly, will we. I am never so grateful for the good things I have in my life – Maria, work that I love, my photography, my writing, my friends, the animals here – than one of these howlers descends on us, and yes, they are getting bigger and more frequent.

Red, of course, pays no attention to the snow or wind, he just goes to the gate and trawls for work.

The Orphaned Book Tour is encountering some pleasant problems – I’m flooded with requests from libraries and bookstores (I’m not sure why publishers are backing away from events, people still very much seem to want them). Sunday, we were off to the knitting mill with Maria’s wool, Monday in New York rallying for the carriage horses, and last night, I got an SOS from Connie Brooks of Battenkill Books saying the books were piling up – more than 100 orders for “Saving Simon”  (early reviews here) and also for the My Readers edition of “Lenore Finds A Friend,” my children’s book (ages 6-8) and an Amazon “Best Book Of The Month” pick for December.

Maria and I rushed over to the bookstore this afternoon to try and catch up with the backlog. My signing table was full.  We got them all, your books are on the way, and thanks. Saving Simon has gone into it’s 3rd printing, a minor miracle since my publisher did just about everything but burn it. Simon’s story lives, good for him (me too.)

Here’s the deal. Both books, judging from the inscriptions, are catching fire as Christmas gifts, there is still plenty of time to order them and get them inscribed and personalized and delivered for Christmas. You also can get a free red Tote Bag (“Peace.Love. Books” and a signed photo postcard of Simon if you order the book through Battenkill, my local bookstore and a wonderful independent bookstore. Connie takes Paypal and can ship either or both books anywhere in the world. To order the book online, go to www.battenkillbooks.com or call the store at 518 677-2515. You can also e-mail Connie Brooks at [email protected].

People who buy the book from  Battenkill will also be eligible for coupons for free Fromm dog or cat food (the food my dogs eat, the oldest family-owned holistic pet food company in America) and notecards, potholders and some photographs. Good stuff, incentives are a part of publishing now.

Bedlam Farm has a Bottle Tree. I saw a few of them on some of the farms I’ve photographed, although they mostly exist on farms in the South. The Bottle  Tree idea comes from the Congo in the 19th century, it was a form of magic called Hood.

Maria made this artwork, this symbol at the request of Blue-Star Eqiculture, the retirement and rescue home of the New York Carriage Horses and other draft animals. They have turned it into a blanket, on sale now for $52 – they have already sold nearly 50 of them.

The blanket and the symbol speak to the ancient connection between human beings and horses and other working animals. We share the joys and travails of the world with them, we need them and they need us. In our world, people have lost respect for the horses and their work, they are sending them away. In New York, there is a great struggle to keep the horses in the city, working with people and living among them.

Maria learned of the “Blue Horse” story and it inspired this logo, which she designed in her Schoolhouse Studio. It is a striking piece of art.

“Everywhere around the world,” writes Pamela Rickenbach of Blue-Star,  “all peoples and cultures express their gratitude for this ancient partnership in their creation stories and myths. The Blue Horse story is just one shared on the BSE farm from a Kallawaya Elder, Don Valerio Cohailla, from high in the Andes in Peru. He spoke of the horses as “angel helpers” who want to be alongside mankind to help them reach their destiny of creating “Peace on Earth” promised in all of the religions of the world.”

There is much at stake in the horse’s struggle to survive in our world, much rides on their fate. Those of us who live and work with animals grasp the importance of the story right away. You can help support the partner between people and working animals, from horses to border collies and sheep and goats by purchasing one of the “Blue Horse” blankets. You can order one here and help restore this ancient bond and our own imaginations, tradition and culture.

All the proceeds go to help animals.