I was taken with the sculpture of Ann Clifford’s entitled “Open Spaces” in the first moment that I saw it, this portrayal in stone of the raw energy and determination manifested in equine movement. A reification of the equine spirit. The strain and focus, the form and energy all directed towards transcendence and a perfection of equine achievement. We speak of and measure and delight in the equestrian conquest of gravity and height. We are, more often than not, so entirely preoccupied with the image of the horse in mid-air that the rest of the scene is lost to us. Here Ann Clifford reminds us that rock, earth, greenery and water are the constituents of not only what must be...
The red cotton cowgirl scarf is an icon of western wear. My guest ranch buys them by the lot to give to visitors participating in our Taste of Montana events that feature horseback riding, roping, country/western music, and line dancing. You’re just not a real cowgirl without a red bandana around your neck. When the tables turn and I become the visitor to urban cultural amenities such as theaters, symphonies, and culinary adventures, I often swap my red bandana for a fine silk scarf imprinted with an equine theme to proudly display my attachment to horses. The adage “you are what you wear” applies to us all. We chose our apparel to announce who we are and what we value....
We all have heroes, heroines and mentors in our lives. My mum, of course, is one of them for me. And since if feels as though we are at war with the Covid-19 virus, I have been, over the last number of days, reminiscing about my Mum’s stories of hardship, struggle and determination to stay the course experienced through her days during WW II in London. But I also, of course, admire other individuals too. Someone whom I have especially admired over the years is Eleanor Roosevelt. I admire her in so many ways. One reason I admire her in particular is because of her determined efforts on this side of the Atlantic Ocean during the Second World War. Although...
While the words are not those of Winston Churchill, and, indeed, were nowhere to be found during the Second World War having been discovered just twenty years ago or so in a bookshop in the northeast of England, the now famous motto “Keep Calm and Carry On” nevertheless has come to be associated with the spirit of the British people. My Mother, whom I introduced you to in my first blog post of January 24, 2020, used the expression “Carry On” often as we grew up. I am sure she herself heard it often from her Mother, my Granny Doris, as they faced daily living in war time England. As a girl I heard it, for example, when I went...
When you watch Claire and Jamie of the television series Outlander ride bareback together, so deeply in love, on a Scottish horse on the Scottish heath set in the mid-eighteenth century, the wind in their faces, the breathtaking scenery flowing by with the wind, you might wonder if you could be forgiven for wanting to escape the everyday to be riding there, too, at that same time and in that same place, to ride and just keep riding. They, of course, in the series have their challenges like everyone else does, both then and in the mid 1940’s from which Claire has slipped through an irregularity in the cloth of time. Indeed, Claire has the peculiarly difficult circumstance of being...
