25 March

Horse Love: How Animals Mark The Passages Of Our Lives

by Jon Katz

Maria and Rocky

It seems another world, another life, when we first met Rocky, the blind 35-year-old Appaloosa Pony who lived on our farm for many years before we bought it and kept him. I will always remember this photo, this was the first time Maria met Rocky, she fell instantly in love with him and began grooming and caring for him in the most loving way.

Rocky lived with us for two years,  he was traumatized by Simon, a male donkey who rejected him and thought him a danger to the herd –  him, Lulu, Fanny. We had an awful time trying to get past this and Rocky. already in failing health, began to fail. Our vet told us it would be merciful to spare him another winter, so we put him down.

Rocky was the first horse we loved. Horses were to become a substantial part of our lives. Rocky opened us up to having a horse on Bedlam Farm, along with the donkeys. I was deeply involved in writing about the New York Carriage Horses, Maria and I had both discovered Blue Star Equiculture, the mystically loving and powerful work horse sanctuary and farm in Palmer,  Massachusetts.

More than a year ago, we had to chance to get another pony, Chloe. Maria planned to ride Chloe and work with her, and Chloe fit well into our lives. She was a sweet and independent creature, headstrong but well behaved. As happens, our lives changed.

Maria’s studio became much more active and successful, she was working hard almost every day of the week, morning into the night. She was making things, shipping things, printing invoices, blogging, taking videos and photos. We both love our blogs, but they are not simple or easy to product and update every day.

Maria loved her time with Chloe, as she loved her time with Rocky. But she had less and less time to do the things that horses love and need to do. She decided to get Chloe to a better place, and today she is going there, to Treasure Wilkinson and her partner Donna.

Maria has explained her decision, and I think it is good and loving one. I had little to do with Chloe when she came here, horses seemed somewhat beyond me, but that changed over time. We learned to talk to one another, and every morning, I was greeted at the gate by a kiss on the nose from a pony. That was a new and loving experience for me.

I loved seeing the affection that Maria and the pony had for each other, I loved seeing their walks together in the pasture. Maria felt badly every day that she was not spending enough time with Chloe, a working animal. Chloe is just going up the road, we can see her as often as we want.

The farm is a living thing and animals are not our dependent creatures or siblings, but citizens of their own nation. Chloe will be with other horses, will be ridden often and loved by children and grandchildren. And some adults as well. She will love that, as working domesticated animals do.

Maria has very intense feelings about Chloe, someone suggested horses were a “phase” for us. But that is not so. Horses entered our lives in the most profound way and altered us. Chief Avrol Looking Horse was correct when he meet me in New York and told me the horses had summoned me to join the other people who were speaking for them. They wished to remain in the city, to do the work they had been doing for people for thousands of  years.

What the chief said was true, it came to be. The New York carriage horses turned out to be much more powerful than the people who were trying to drive them away.

Life is a wheel, it keeps turning. Maria and I are both believers in rebirth and renewal.  Chloe changed her, and touched her deeply. Chloe’s leaving is a renewal for us, a rebirth for her. She will have every that she needs and wants and we will move forward with our lives, her departure marking yet another passage in our lives that has left us wiser and richer.

I can’t speak for Maria, but I believe in looking forward, not backwards. One thing leaves, another comes, our lives moves forward, hers too. Spirit animals mark the passages of our lives, they come when they are needed, they go when they are done.

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