The Little Girl Who Loved Horses

Once there was a little girl who loved horses. You will say, wait: more than once; many little girls love horses. And you will be correct. This is a story about one such little girl. 

This little girl loved horses so much that her parents (may they be blessed and forgiven for all that they did and did not do) found a place where the little girl could be with horses. In that place she met a woman who taught her all about them: how to ride them, yes, but also how to care for them and – more importantly – how to love them even more.

Time after time the girl could be heard to say such things as, "there's nothing smells bad about a horse." Even though she was neither midwestern nor a 19th century cowboy. But she knew such things to be true, so she said as much.

As time went on, not seldom the girl would close her eyes (lids or consciousness) and be with the horses again. A great comfort. Riding them in the fields in her mind, her body would remember itself wild.

Nearly twenty years on and two feet up the girl once again found herself with the woman who had taught her to love horses.

"You look great," said the woman. "Your body hasn't forgotten."

Thank you,  Judi Whipple, for putting the young girl on a horse. In so doing (did you meant to? but) you apportioned a part of her soul irrevocably beyond the reach of domestication. And she has not forgotten.

You can't teach someone to be wild. But you can remind them. And you can help keep the small world at bay – the corset and the thin air and the scarce thought.

You are wild, too. 

What is your horse?