Starry Starry Night

I do not dread cold winter nights.  Au contraire, I have come to embrace them.

Although development is seeping into my rural community from every direction, it is still rural enough that our night skies are quite dark, and it is easy to view hundreds and hundreds of stars.  So as the season transitions from warm to cold and as the pasture grass wanes, the horses need more and more hay forage to maintain their body heat and weight, and it is my preference to supplement them with one last hay serving late at night.

Many times working with horses has produced a spike in my adrenaline coupled with a pounding heartbeat, but there are many more times when horses have forced me to slow down. The still winter nights are such an occasion: words will fail me as I try to explain the utter beauty of looking up through bare branches to see the display of stars above them.  And to see one's horses silhouetted against a starry midnight sky is literally breathtaking.  I have enjoyed late night winter feedings with every one of my horses through the years and the experience never gets old.  I imagine it is one element of my life that I actually share with horsemen of the ages; for some reason I often think of the Mongol tribes of 800 or so years ago, and how they must have stood next to their furry winter horses and marveled at the stars too.

When it is time to go back into the house, I am always reluctant to leave, and once back in bed, I stay awake a long time trying to memorize the sight and sound of my dearest friends standing under their blanket of stars.