Two Poems: End of Riding Season
This is the last weekend of the horse riding season at Tahoe Donner Equestrian Center. Soon the horses will be taken to winter pastures.
Years ago, the Tahoe Donner Equestrian Center shared its facilities with the cross-country ski amenity; thus, the horses would be brought up in May and be taken back to the Central Valley pastures for winter. This last weekend in September marks the end of the season. Driving past the Center in to town for errands, one morning I saw the horses all gathered in the front corral. By the time I returned, they were all gone. It was like magic, like the faery folk had spirited them all away. The magic remained even stronger, though, when I participated in this seasonal farewell. The barn managers had organized the loading of all a couple dozen horses so well, it only took about an hour or so to load them into a semi truck's double-decker stock trailer. They would be taken to a huge pasture in the foothills of the western Sierra Nevada for the winter. One year, we loaded Abby with them and accompanied her to that pasture. What a sight to watch the herd gallop from the holding pen after inspection to the pasture.
When the Horses Come and Go They appear one day in spring to a corral barely dry of snow their arrival and departure frame an arc of seasons filled with aromas of dust, pinesap and green moldering earth. We rake the paddocks clean listen to the swallows fly up and down the breezeway the rhythmic chomp of molars grinding hay at sunset eyes roll closed at end of rustic day after day. We watch every year as the Barn Rats grow from cherubs to sleek young women working through the ranks from pony attendant to guide. My daughter casts me a sassy grin as she leads a line of tourists toward Bear Meadows. Her mare and I both lame and limping sprinkles of grey turning us to roans push ourselves around the pony trail. Even though we can no longer follow the trails across the mountain we can still trace the rituals of summer. Full moons float in alpenglow four times before breezes chill and frost mane and wither. The morning of the horses’ leaving announces Fall. Despite the golden mantle upon the marsh dark storms brood ready to cover the corral beyond the rail tops the smells and sounds of summer buried. My daughter leaves for college, My man leaves for a job in the city, I tend the fire and shovel snow watch the drifts wrap around the house press the seams of quilt squares and pull another book from the shelf.
Winter Haitus
Every year she fears where we’ll take her
a new place every winter
new people to feed her
this fall she’ll go with the dude string
quickly packed on the truck
she presses her head into the rump
of the horse next to her
if she only knew she was headed
for a sea of rich grass.
Unloaded, examined for cuts
the horses wait in the holding pen
milling, anxious, wary
she squeals with duress at each touch
of nose or flank
at last the gate opens
they bolt at full run
manes flying
dirt clods spinning
she follows the confidence of the herd
down the road to whatever fate
as they spill and spread in the endless field
they soon become rounded
islands among green waves
her head rises at our call
then disappears below the verdant horizon.
These poems are from my poetry book, When the Horses Come and Go.
All photos by Sue CauhapeIf you enjoyed this post feel free to explore other poems, essays, and stories in the Ring Around the Basin Archive. I also love to read your comments, so please share your thoughts. Let’s start a conversation. And if you wish to support my writings, please consider subscribing or upgrading to a paid subscription. It’s now only $50/year.
All my books, Paradise Ridge, When the Horses Come and Go, and Ghost in the Forest are currently available on Kindle.
Ghost in the Forest, is available in paperback as well for ten bucks.
Book Review:
"Ghost in The Forest" is a great read! Take note People. If you love stories about environmentalism and nature, its clash with urban mindsets, as well as personal transformation, this is the book for you!
"Ghost in The Forest" is a quick 126-page read. It's the story of Dori, a woman trapped in a mix of grief over parental loss and refusing to accept how her hometown and her friends have changed over the years. Because of this, Dori has become a recluse and a self-imposed misanthrope who finds more comfort amongst the hiking trails around her hometown of Morristown than in her dealings with the raw reality of other humans.
The book, in some ways, resembled Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire” in that the story follows a protagonist's love of nature and angst about humans encroaching on it. In this case, it’s how Morristown is transforming into a mountain biking destination where cyclists run rampant on trails and nature.
However, a tragedy involving said mountain biking becomes a major pivot point for Dori, leading to a series of events that eventually bring about personal evolution and discovery.
If you're a nature lover, this book is a must-read. It beautifully portrays the clash between environmentalism and urban mindsets and the journey of personal transformation. The book's vivid descriptions of nature and the protagonist's love for it will surely intrigue you.
Paradise Ridge Review by western author D. B. Jackson:
If you draw circle roughly around an area that includes northern Nevada, southern Oregon, and southern Idaho, within that circle exists a culture and people who live a lifestyle largely untouched by modern values. These are the "buckaroos" and Basque characters author Sue Cauhape brings to life in her literary novel, "Paradise Ridge".
Leandro, the illegitimate seventh son of patriarch Xavier Arriaga and his mistress, Gisela, is at the center of this intriguing story that travels exceedingly successfully at both the personal level of the characters, as well as the compelling level where the story is told.
Cauhape writes in a literary style that reminds me of Annie Poulx. Paradise Ridge, on the surface, appears to be an upscale Western novel...once inside the pages, you will soon discover a potential classic waiting to be discovered.
I rated this book a 5...because that's all the stars there were.
Alas, Paradise Ridge is out of print. The Kindle version is a re-edited version of higher quality.
Oh Sue, such beautiful words - the first poem in particular has given me goosepimples!
And I love what you've said about the magic remaining even stronger. You've made me think that the end of the riding season is not an ending as such, but a change of both place and pace. Wonderful.
'It was like magic, like the faery folk had spirited them all away. The magic remained even stronger, though, when I participated in this seasonal farewell.'
That big lump from in your bank account is from the books I purchased from you on Amazon. Don’t spend it all in one place.