We have two dogs now, one is from Northern Ireland, the other bred from herding dogs in Wales. They love to work and run together, they work beautifully and well together, almost a ballet of strength, power, grace and instinct Border were bred in England around the turn of the century by a breeder who wanted a gentler, smarter and faster herding dog than the ones in use. Old Hemp was a stud dog believed to be the progenitor of the border collie breed, all border collies are descended from him.
Border collies need work. Like many storied breeds, they are being overbred, many are being bred for show, not work, and for people drawn to the breed but not to the work of keeping the breed well. I have failed a border collie or two, and worked hard to learn what I need to know. Border collies chanted my life, they are my lifetime dogs for sure, they are where I have landed with dogs.
I got sheep for them, farms for them (and for me) and my work with them has been deep and broad – sheep and therapy work and hikes in the woods. Red accepts Fate completely, and is gracious and loving with her in his gentle and indirect way.
Fate adores him and follows him around everywhere. She screams in her crate when he goes outside without her, she is good in her crate except when Red goes out to work, she will never be rewarded for screaming in her crate, no matter how long or how loud. She is smart, she will get it.
In the morning, the two run together before I bring the sheep in. Partly, this is to calm both of them down, tire them a bit. The sheep do not need two border collies pushing them around at full tilt. It is an awesome thing to see them run together, a touch of the wild, a reminder of the ancient ties of people and animals, a testament to the beauty of the working dog and the diligence and vision of the people who bred them.
To get a border collie puppy bred from a male and female in Wales, you first have to be crazy, just like the dog is.
You have to impress Dr. Karen Thompson with your commitment and sincerity, not a simple task. This wonderful human being and amazing breeder of dogs will not hand over her puppies to anybody she does not believe is spirituality and emotionally stable, by which I mean patient, loving and sound of heart. I would not care to try and fool that woman, it would not go well. She gave me Red, and now Fate, and I don’t know what else you can say about a breeder or a human being than that.
And you have to take the long view, that is, be patient, be determined, keep your sense of humor close and your wits closer. Border collie puppies challenge one in a very particular way, the same way buying a small nuclear reactor and keeping it in a crate downstairs would.
Training fate to work with the sheep has been one of the joys of my life and work with dogs. If I stick with it and listen, she will soon teach me how to herd sheep with a good dog. Red got me started, Fate will carry on the work.
Fate is a lot of fun to work with, but she tries my patience and short attention span. A young border collie filled with instinct does not always hear a human give commands, does not always respond. That takes time. I won’t let her into the pasture unless she sits by the open gate for a full minute, it takes four or five tries to get her to sit and lie down at all, she is so intensely focused on getting to the sheep. When she settles and listens, I open the gate and call her in.
This morning, the sheep were out in the middle of the pasture, I took Fate’s leash off and out she went, circling the sheep and marching them to the side of the fence, where, with great poise and regal bearing, she lay down and watched them. The sheep were a bit flabbergasted, they lowered their heads and stared back, and the scene got peaceful after a few minutes, they put there heads down, I called Fate to get out from them a bit, and it could have been a scene from Wales.
Fate has extraordinary presence for such a young dog, the sheep are beginning to respect her there are deepening moments of calm around them. We are still working on our outruns, sometimes I think she is getting it, sometimes i don’t. Patience, patience, patience. She is worth it, and I will not mess her up. She has come a long way in two weeks, longer than I even imagined.
In just a few days, on June 27-28 (and on Columbus Day Weekend in October) we will hold an Open House, a two-day celebration of our lives, of art, of our love of animals, our love of one another, our love of encouragement and inspiration. The first Open Houses were held at the other Bedlam Farm, a grander stage for sure, with 90 acres, sweeping view, four restored barns. We had more than 1,500 people come to the first and second Open Houses, our neighbors were shocked, and they were grant events.
Lots of artists, two security guards, off-duty cops and firemen to handle the traffic, a completely different cast of animals – Rose herding sheep in the two big pastures, Simon greeting visitors, Lenore getting hugged nearly to death, Frieda barking and lunging in the back yard. Our original idea was to showcase the work of artists, including Maria, resuming her career as a fiber artist after a long and difficult hiatus. We restored our beautiful old Pig Barn, it was now a beautiful gallery. People came from everywhere.
Things are different now, yet in many ways the same. It is still a showcase for art – Maria and six other gifted artists will showcase their work – quilts, potholders, cartoons, beautiful Batiks, paintings, sculptures made out of beautiful old things. George Forss the famed photographer will be available for portraits – this is the biggest bargain in the art world. Tyler will be helping people to park, there will be two Porta-Potties for those who need them. We can’t offer food, but the Round House Cafe is just down the road, great and healthy and tasty food for the hungry. Connie Brook’s beautiful bookstore – Battenkill – is just a couple of miles away. Anyone who wants a book signed by me can stop by Battenkill or call the store in advance (518 677-2515) and order one. Maria will also be selling a few.
The Open House was a dream. That our farm could encourage the creative, light the creative spark, celebrate the creative part of all of this. It doesn’t matter where it is held, the dream lives on.
The animal cast is very different. Simon, Frieda and Lenore are gone. Chloe the new pony is just as sociable as Simon and loves carrots and apples just as much. Lulu and Fanny are a bit more refined than Simon was (or Chloe is) bu they can be bribed as well. Red will be doing his quite wonderful herding demonstrations, I will also show how I am teaching Fate how to work with sheep. Fate is already a rock star, that will be fun.
Maria is featuring poetry this time as well as art – the October line-up will be different, except for the animals. We ask, as always, that people do not bring dogs or other animals, it is disruptive to the creatures here. Children are welcome, if the stay close to their parents. We have a lot of animals and people running around.
The poetry line-up is impressive. Doug Anderson. Mary Kellogg. Tom Atkins. Kate Rantilla. They will all be reading from their work and selling it. Our friend Mary will be marking publication of her third volume of poetry, “How To Dance.” We are so honored to be publishing her work. Pamela Rickenbach of Blue Star Equiculture, who was hoping to be here with some draft horses, will be coming in October, not June.
My friend Joshua Rockwood, the brave and determined New York farmer so unjustly accused of animal cruelty will be dropping by to speak. I hope Ken Norman will come by and talk about his work and life as a farrier. My friend Scott Carrino will be away for this Open House, but will be at the next one In October.
Our neighbor Tyler Lindenholl will be on hand both days to help with parking and crowd control. Our wonderful house and pet sitter Deb Foster will be on hand to help with the animals. We can hardly imagine life without her. Neither can the animals.
Maria’s sister Fran will be returning to show and sell her mini-gardens.
It is a two-day event. Maria will set up her studio as an art gallery and hold forth there will Kim McMillan and the other artists. I will be in my role as animal handler, doing herding demos and conducting horse and donkey tours. I will give my annual report on Bedlam Farm and discuss my next book, “Talking To Animals.”
This farm is peaceful and compact, beautiful on a smaller scale. It is not so grand a stage, yet it is the right stage for Maria, for me, for us. Sometimes you do need to be knocked down a peg or two before you can see life clearly. I always think of the other farm, it has just been sold, and we struggled to keep it going for nearly four years. It has pretty much wiped out our savings, yet it was nothing but a gift. We met one another there, I came to life there, I found out who I was, the point, really of the hero journey.
So the Open House is filled with meaning. It is a reflection of life, and it’s crisis and mystery and wonder. The Open House comes almost to the day on the first anniversary of my Open Heart Surgery, and this will surely be an easier summer than the last one was. I am lucky to be alive, and happy to be alive, and eager to share our lives with you for these two days, and again in the fall.
I hope to see some of you in June, others in October. For those who can’t make it, there will be the usual flood of photos and videos, nothing much happens in our world any longer that is not recorded and shared. Details of the Open House can be found on Maria’s website.
The battle-scarred officials of the Teamster’s Union say they have never seen their members harassed and insulted and treated more cruelly than the New York Carriage Drivers have been treated in recent years during the long campaign to banish the carriage trade from New York.
They asked me to consider sharing the story of Ditmar, a carriage driver and a recent immigrant to the United States. A Teamsters Union official said they have never seen attacks like this on their members in modern times, so many, so relentless, so false and so cruel.
I believe them because I have witnessed a number of these attacks, including the taunting of one driver for the condition of her teeth, telling the children of one driver that their father was a torturer and a murder, and the taunting and terrorizing of tourists and children trying to take a carriage ride.
In America, we are not supposed to live in fear because we have come to work to earn a living. Our elected leaders are supposed to protect us from abuse and harassment, not support abuse and harassment. Remember that Ditmar has broken no law, committed no crime, violated none of the hundreds of regulations that govern the carriage trade.
If you are as disturbed by this and other stories like it, please write the mayor of New York City and tell him so. Your letters are beginning to come into City Hall, I am told they are being read, and they matter.
The mayor of New York, an ambitious politician who often travels outside of the city to spread his message. He seems eager to become the leader of the progressive political movement, and he and his advisers are now apparently deeply concerned that his irrational and unjust assault against the working union men and women in the carriage trade will come to the attention of people outside of New York – especially people who call themselves progressive. The mayor is eager to impress them. Many people across the country are beginning to wonder what is progressive about a plan to destroy the jobs and livelihood of hundreds of working people without any kind of cause or due process.
If you can, please write the mayor and tell him this campaign against the carriage trade is not progressive, and needs to stop: Mayor Bill deBlasio, City Hall, City Hall Park, New York, N.Y., 10007.
This week, a carriage driver named Ditmar, an immigrant from Bulgaria, wrote a Teamsters official and apologized for bothering her. He was asking for help in case he got into trouble for coming to work, in case an incident involving him made it’s way into the media. Rather than summarize his story, I decided to reprint it in his own words. It is a permanent stain on the honor and reputation of the mayor of New York that he would have associated himself so closely with this kind of treatment of citizens he is sworn to protect and to laws he is sworn to uphold. It is a wonderful thing to show concern for animals, it is a profoundly troubling thing when the people who do it lose any compassion and decency for human beings.
Ditmar -e-mailed me this morning: ” I came to here to pursue the American dream. To have a family and to take care of it. Horse and carriage is my passion and the job which I love. I was a country boy in Bulgaria so that’s what I love to do to take care of the animals and to show the tourists Central park.”
You will not see this story in the New York media, I’m afraid. If a horse stumbles on a New York street, it is a major news story for days, if a carriage driver is dehumanized or assaulted, if his customers are intimidated or harassed, if the horses are provoked with taunts and placards in the hope they will panic, it is not considered news.
Ditmar encountered a person who said she is a supporter of animal rights on a Sunday night, when carriage horses are permitted to work later than on weekdays. It speaks to the climate of fear and harassment in the carriage trade that Ditmar felt compelled to ask his union for help, even though he had done nothing wrong, other than dare to come to work for a living in a country he came to because of the freedom it offered him to live his life.
Ditmar’s letter to the Teamsters: “I wasn’t planning to bother you, I decided to tell you what happened to me last night. Our opponents are getting really desperate. I parked the horse and carriage at the Rockefeller Center around 10:15 pm (we can be there legally after 9:00 pm Sundays, even earlier during the day) when some crazy women jumped from the back and started screaming that it’s against the law for me to be there, that I am son of a bitch, that she will take picture of my plate and so on.. .
I told her OK, take as many pictures as you want and how do you know the law? Her response was “I am the law, I am from the Coalition To Ban Carriage Horses.” And of course, I have started laughing… Some girl was giving the horse a carrot and she started bothering her with the regular nonsense: the horses are abused, they live in apartments etc.. I told her to leave the girl alone, and if she continues to harass her I will call the police. She calmed down a little bit and started asking her (the girl) if she is harassing her. Then the poor girl left. I told her” listen you can have your personal opinion and you can express it. This is America and that’s why this country is so great but don’t harass and bother the others with it.” She than just told me find another job and left while screaming it’s against the law for me to be there and she should call the cops on me. I simply told her “Madam Have a nice evening! ” I really doubt it she can do something with these pictures because I wasn’t doing anything wrong but if something stupid shows in some media can I rely on your back up?”
The carriage drivers have many uglier stories than this, but this one touched me in a particular way. It is an awful thing – especially for someone coming to our country from a troubled place seeking peace and a government that protects freedom, being shouted at, harassed, accused of breaking the law by someone with no authority or mandate to investigate him or frighten his customers or a friend of the horses. I am sorry that Ditmar feels so threatened in his every day work – and it is good and hard and honest work – that he has to live in fear. Carriage drivers are routinely accused of crimes by animal rights activists – abuse, torture, homophobia, alcoholism, theft, greed, immorality, even the murder of horses.
Demonstrators regularly shove placards in the faces of the carriage horses in the hope of provoking an accident, they scream at tourists and children riding in the carriages and at people petting the horses and giving them carrots.
None of these accusations have turned out to be true, although almost all have been widely reported by the city’s pliant media. I am not a reporter, I am an author, but I called the Coalition To Ban The Carriage Horses to ask them about Ditmar’s trouble, to find out whether they ask their members to harass carriage drivers. There is no phone number for the group, just an e-mail address. No one responded to my query.
If you are a person who sees themselves as progressive, or one who doesn’t, or a union member, or a person with a job of any kind, or an animal lover, or a citizen of what it supposed to be the freest nation on earth, where government protects freedom and property, please consider writing a letter to Mayor deBlasio and telling him that this is not what is great about America, the left or the right. Please ask him to do the job he was elected to do, and leave the carriage horses in the city. You might also ask him to stop the unconscionable persecution of Ditmar and the other carriage drivers, many who came to America to avoid overreaching and repressive governments: Mayor Bill deBlasio, City Hall, City Hall Park, New York, N.Y., 10007.
Your letter can make a real difference. I thank Ditmar for agreeing to share his story and the Teamster’s Union for telling me about it. The New York Carriage Drivers are members of the Teamsters Union.
