Posts
While many of you can’t join us in person right now as we uphold COVID-19 travel restrictions and guidelines, join Kelly in saying hello to the EQUUS herd in Santa Fe, NM. Let us bring the herd to you!
What would you do if you suddenly realized you were a racist? In the midst of the peaceful Black Lives Matter worldwide protests I took it upon myself to dive into as much antiracist material as I could get my hands on. My Kindle running hot, I read in a weekend White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander and listened to Brené Brown’s recent interview with Ibram X. Kendi author of the New York Times bestseller How to Be an Antiracist. I read papers and articles. I had difficult conversations with loved ones.
If you’ve ever been to a circus or traveled somewhere exotic, you may have encountered elephants either doing tricks or taking tourists on rides through the forest. How are such enormous creatures trained? All around the world a tragic process is still being implemented by elephant handlers. They start by training the elephant when he is a baby and weighs only 200 pounds. At that stage, they shackle his legs to a twelve-foot length of chain and stake the chain into the ground. During this process many other unspeakable events happen to the baby elephant.
Society points the finger at the individual—to raise a good kid, to be healthy, to recycle, to reduce carbon emissions, to succeed financially—but it’s a deflection to keep us engaged in our own personal choices rather than hold the society at large—our leaders, our institutions our policies—responsible for creating a culture that supports us to thrive.
Aedín is a small black six-year-old quarter horse mare who was saved from the kill pens last year. When she arrived three months ago to live at our ranch she had not been trained or ridden. In horsemanship terms, you would say she hadn’t been ‘broken’. Broken––such an incisively appropriate term for what we do to horses (and people I would add). In order to feel safe on the back of one thousand pounds of wild horse muscle, trainers notoriously intimidate, bully and manipulate their four-legged companions into submission, rendering them emotionally numb and spiritually bereft. Cowboys call these horses proudly ‘yes ma’am-ers’. I call them a tragedy.
Katie
We adopted sweet Katie from the Espanola Animal Shelter. We’ve been told she is a purebred Australian Cattle Dog. But we think she’s actually a Northern New Mexico Butterfly Sheppard. She spends her days chasing butterflies and their shadows. When not herding butterflies, she’s coaxing Molly to play games of tumble and roll.
Éowyn ‘Wynnie’
Named after Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings character who was a fierce shieldmaiden, Wynnie is indeed idealistic, spirited, brave and high-minded. Adopted from the animal shelter, she spends her days in the piñon forests of Thunderbird Ridge, and hunts alongside her friend Lizzie.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ – Lizzie is a tuxedo cat, adopted from the animal shelter. When she arrived at Thunderbird Ridge, she had lived virtually her whole life in a cage, having come to the shelter as a kitten, and raised for over a year in that environment. Now she’s an adventuresome hunter, and is the first to enthusiastically greet our EQUUS clients at the driveway.
Molly
Super happy, joyful and content – Molly’s calm and welcoming presence soothes us all as she keeps a watchful eye on well, everything.
Pages
While many of you can’t join us in person right now as we uphold COVID-19 travel restrictions and guidelines, join Kelly in saying hello to the EQUUS herd in Santa Fe, NM. Let us bring the herd to you!
What would you do if you suddenly realized you were a racist? In the midst of the peaceful Black Lives Matter worldwide protests I took it upon myself to dive into as much antiracist material as I could get my hands on. My Kindle running hot, I read in a weekend White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander and listened to Brené Brown’s recent interview with Ibram X. Kendi author of the New York Times bestseller How to Be an Antiracist. I read papers and articles. I had difficult conversations with loved ones.
If you’ve ever been to a circus or traveled somewhere exotic, you may have encountered elephants either doing tricks or taking tourists on rides through the forest. How are such enormous creatures trained? All around the world a tragic process is still being implemented by elephant handlers. They start by training the elephant when he is a baby and weighs only 200 pounds. At that stage, they shackle his legs to a twelve-foot length of chain and stake the chain into the ground. During this process many other unspeakable events happen to the baby elephant.
Society points the finger at the individual—to raise a good kid, to be healthy, to recycle, to reduce carbon emissions, to succeed financially—but it’s a deflection to keep us engaged in our own personal choices rather than hold the society at large—our leaders, our institutions our policies—responsible for creating a culture that supports us to thrive.
Aedín is a small black six-year-old quarter horse mare who was saved from the kill pens last year. When she arrived three months ago to live at our ranch she had not been trained or ridden. In horsemanship terms, you would say she hadn’t been ‘broken’. Broken––such an incisively appropriate term for what we do to horses (and people I would add). In order to feel safe on the back of one thousand pounds of wild horse muscle, trainers notoriously intimidate, bully and manipulate their four-legged companions into submission, rendering them emotionally numb and spiritually bereft. Cowboys call these horses proudly ‘yes ma’am-ers’. I call them a tragedy.
Katie
We adopted sweet Katie from the Espanola Animal Shelter. We’ve been told she is a purebred Australian Cattle Dog. But we think she’s actually a Northern New Mexico Butterfly Sheppard. She spends her days chasing butterflies and their shadows. When not herding butterflies, she’s coaxing Molly to play games of tumble and roll.
Éowyn ‘Wynnie’
Named after Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings character who was a fierce shieldmaiden, Wynnie is indeed idealistic, spirited, brave and high-minded. Adopted from the animal shelter, she spends her days in the piñon forests of Thunderbird Ridge, and hunts alongside her friend Lizzie.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ – Lizzie is a tuxedo cat, adopted from the animal shelter. When she arrived at Thunderbird Ridge, she had lived virtually her whole life in a cage, having come to the shelter as a kitten, and raised for over a year in that environment. Now she’s an adventuresome hunter, and is the first to enthusiastically greet our EQUUS clients at the driveway.
Molly
Super happy, joyful and content – Molly’s calm and welcoming presence soothes us all as she keeps a watchful eye on well, everything.