Tierra Madre Horse Sanctuary
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The Weakest Step
I see her in the mountains. I see her in every saguaro and palo verde and creosote bush. I feel her in every breath of wind and in the sun on my face. I hear her charging across the sky. I look all around me and she is there, breathing life into my aching heart. Continue reading
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An Announcement: Sonora
She’s gone. My little girl, my sister from the moment our eyes met, my beautiful, young, wild and spirited mare joined the Great Herd today at 12:30. Her X-rays yesterday showed further rotation in both front feet and her coffin bones were actually starting to sink. She was losing weight, her poor legs shook with Continue reading
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A Living Nightmare
I debated even writing about this. About how we – in the last 48 hours – came to the edge of the abyss of losing Heighten. The edge of the freaking abyss. Neither Jim or I want to relive the nightmare that was Sunday afternoon and Sunday early evening and Sunday night and Monday in the Continue reading
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The Hardest Part
Raw. That is truly the only way I can describe this feeling: this feeling of having my heart ripped out, scraped roundly against the rough edges of a wall, then thrust back into my chest. And I can’t stop the pain. When you love the horses you care for with everything you have, you don’t Continue reading
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Horse Mommy
It was towards the end of my morning, perhaps 45 minutes before it was time to feed the horses, when I heard the words. I had taken my oldest gelding up to the breezeway to take off the three-day-old wrappings I’d placed on his hoof to heal an abscess. One of my volunteers and her Continue reading
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An Impossible Nuzzle
Nearly every person that comes to our ranch has a connection with one particular horse. They fall in love with all of them, naturally, but there is usually one with whom they share a powerful bond. Before I started volunteering at Tierra Madre, I used to think that everybody chose their “favorite” horse based on Continue reading
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Sunny
It’s 1 am on May 14th, and I can’t sleep. I am floating. Celebrating. Rejoicing. Tonight (technically it was yesterday, I suppose), at 9:20 pm, I watched this precious baby girl come into the world. We didn’t think it was going to happen then. In fact, around 8 I was preparing to get some sleep before Continue reading
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Baby Watch
For those of you following along on my Facebook and Instagram accounts, you know that we saved a pregnant mare from slaughter two and a half months ago at my ranch. We have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of her foal for ten long weeks, and now – as of April 27th at 9 pm Continue reading
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Slowing Down Time
I have absolutely no idea where this year is going. It sounds so cliché to keep insisting that I blinked and suddenly found myself four months into 2015, but that’s truly how I feel. With full time work (read: 31 horses to take care of) and then some, full time school, friends and family and Continue reading
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My Job: What It Means To Be A Rancher
ALL THROUGHOUT COLLEGE, I was groomed to enter the 9-to-5 workforce the moment after I walked across the stage to grab my diploma. My peers and I were taught in a special class how to write the resume, nail the interview, impress the big boss. All the professionals were brought to clue us in to Continue reading
Shorts and Snippets 