I fell in love with horses at a young age and rode in group English lessons from the age of 10-16.  I didn’t return to horses until my mid 30s, and I didn’t even become conscious of mustangs until I was in my 40s.  I think I always knew about Mustangs because of the extraordinary and powerful mythos of the great American West.  But, my first Mustang “Blue” came to me well into my adult horse journey and, honestly, he changed my life forever.

Blue (formerly called BlueDuck after the infamous character in Lonesome Dove) is all of 13.2 hands.  Pony size, for my non-horsey readers.  Together, he and I have ridden across thousands of miles of public and private lands.  We have jumped, we have showed, and we have learned about dressage together.  But mostly, what I have learned from Blue is the kind of togetherness and unity with a horse that only happens once in a lifetime.

“When I ride Blue, he teaches me that I need to be present.  He has shown me how to dissolve into the moment in such a profound and exquisite way, and it mostly happens when I let go and let him take the reins in an arroyo.  There’s my breath, the sound of his hooves, my soft eyes, his cadence, our moving along together.  Sometimes, I call it stillness in motion.  Sometimes, I call it surfing the arroyo.”

But, this kind of melting into the moment doesn’t happen any other place with Blue.  We go into the magical deep time together and, it’s only when we leave the arroyo, that I remember (sometimes in a rather shocking reboot) that I have food to make, children to pick up from school, bills to pay, friends to call, and things to fix.  Our time together literally takes me away, and I feel a sense of calm, quiet and inner joy after these rides.

I continue my equestrian journey today through trail riding, jumping and dressage training.  I plan to ride until the day I die, and hopefully even on the day that I die.  Being on the back of a horse, like my mustang Blue, is like being home.  So, shorthand would be this: Blue is home.

I truly hope that by starting Pegasus: One Mustang at a Time that I can give another person and another mustang the opportunity to come home and the opportunity to dissolve into the depths of the universe, one ride at a time.