Expressions

I have an old Toshiba laptop that my parents bought for me when I started college. That was about 13 years ago. It looks like a dinosaur compared to my current computer, but much of its contents are quite precious. 

As I cleaned up the files, merrily revisiting times past, I found a lot of photos. It's amazing what you can see when you look at something familiar to you but through a lens much older and wiser than the one you were peering through when you committed those moment into permanence. 

I found many of these photos utterly fascinating - I notice so much more now than I did back then (and for some of these, "back then" wasn't all that long ago...). I thoroughly enjoyed the rich expressions of the subjects of these images.

Pico, caught in a moment of muddy mischief...or I disturbed his nap, not sure which.

Student Kacey and her mare Gamma

Soni taking good care of student Donna 

Stella, ever the ready, always focused, always in earnest

Believe or not, I do have other pursuits I enjoy outside of horses!

A visit with the boys

Friend Julia on her Morgan gelding Merle

Sweet, sweet Stella

Julia's Merle and I having a moment. Yes, I'm holding a teddy bear. Don't worry, we recovered.

I could write a novel about all of these moments. I could have back then, too, but that story would have looked quite a bit different than the one I might write now. It would be much more fact based and unattached. For instance, in this last snapshot, I was with friend Julia and her Morgan gelding Merle about five years ago at the Lippitt Morgan Horse Show, part of the Vermont Morgan Horse Days at the Tunbridge Fair in Tunbridge, Vermont. Merle and I were entered in a trail class, and this obstacle required me to walk by the blue barrel, pick up the teddy and drop it off at a barrel about 20 feet away. Merle had other ideas and spooked hard at the bear. If I recall correctly, I got a round of applause from the folks lunching stage right of this shot for staying on as he bucked and kicked out at the demon child's toy. We eventually deposited the teddy at the other barrel, but it was quite the ordeal.

Now, I look at this photo a smile halfheartedly. Merle told me long before I laid a finger on the bear that he was really unsure of it. He gave the barrel a wide berth, his nostrils flared and his eye strained not to let the creature out of his sight. I cajoled him up to the barrel and grabbed the teddy quickly: I knew the spook was coming but we were in a timed class and had to get the job done. Merle did exactly as I knew he'd do and his response was entirely justified: not only was the bear giving him a worried feeling but then it rushed him! In that moment he had to decide between saving himself or keeping me aboard and I made the choice to save his own hide pretty easy as I held tight to the stuffed animal. He wasn't prepared and I failed to prepare him, too focused on the timer to help him out. Lucky for me Merle is a pretty forgiving fellow and didn't continue trying to dispose of me once he realized the bear wasn't going anywhere, but while Julia and I both laugh at this shot now (Merle has fully recovered and has since played with many a stuffed animal without residual trauma), I also see a moment where I could have been of help to a horse but simply didn't know how to at the time. I know now.