(a tip of the riding helmet to my favorite equines)

My favorite bit in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (The Two Towers) is when three of our heroes meet the Riders of Rohan, and are given spare horses for their journey. Ever since, the elvish way with all good beasts has been an ideal. Tollkien had ridden with the cavalry in WWI. He knew horses well enough to write them wonderfully.

A great dark-grey horse was brought to Aragorn, and he mounted it. 'Hasufel is his name,' said Éomer. 'May he bear you well and to better fortune than Gárulf, his late master!'
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A smaller and lighter horse, but restive and fiery, was brought to Legolas. Arod was his name. But Legolas asked them to take off saddle and rein. 'I need them not,' he said, and leaped lightly up, and to their wonder Arod was tame and willing beneath him, moving here and there with but a spoken word: such was the elvish way with all good beasts. Gimli was lifted up behind his friend, and he clung to him, not much more at ease than Sam Gamgee in a boat.

click for small but mighty ponies

In the late 50s and early 60s, what you found on TV was westerns: Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Fury of Broken Wheel Ranch, Zorro, Bonanza, the Virginian and dozens more galloped across our one greenish NBC channel each week. There are photos of me at two on a neighbor's pony, then my own brown and white pinto pony at four, a wild black pony (named Fury, of course) who had to be sold after Dad injured his back. Fury died of colic later. A horse at twelve (Saraf) who did it all (4-H, egg and spoon, dressage and swordfights), a ten dollar miniature "warhorse" named Knock'em Silly, a fey grey pony (Bazraf) who made us believe in faerie steeds and unicorns, and the wild black mare (Lor) who came to me when he passed on. A number of my horses have been part Arabian, and I've worked with several mustangs. Today I'm most interested in the nearly vanished heritage breeds, especially the "Spanish Colonial" types descended from the original horses brought here in the 1500s: the barrier island ponies (Chincoteague, Banker, Shackleford), the Marsh Tackies (Carolinas) and the Florida Cracker Horse, as well as Indian ponies and mustangs.You can find out more at: http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/colonialspanish.html

click for the Wild Black Mare (Pen and ink drawing I did for Nancy Springer's 'Stardark Songs', based on 'Lor', my wild black mare.)

click for Yatallii

Lor and Svaha

click for random medieval madness

clilck for First Horse: Saraf... here: Saraf (Blenny up) and me on Lor at Markland's Medieval Faire.

Photo credits: while the other work on this site is mine, you may notice I am in many of the equine shots, therefore I did not take those photos. Sadly, I'm not sure who did. (If you recognize your work, email me). Some were no doubt taken by my honorary Big Brother, Dave Tristan, and other members of Markland or the Shire of Dawnfield. My dad took numerous shots of me on Saraf as a kid. Steve Carey shot some nice shots of me on Bazraf (the rearing shot) and others at my home back in the 80s. For all the friends who recorded these adventures, thanks.

Me on Magic, an Appaloosa "sport horse" (Appy cross bred for three phase eventing). 
I was a working student on this farm for a few months back in 1986 or 7. This jump isn't as high as it looks (under 3').