Running with the Horses

I should start this post with saying my husband loves me.  Two years ago we were thinking that San Diego might not be the place we want to spend the rest of our lives.  The process of finding a new place, depending on your needs, can be an interesting one.  Sperling Best Places is a good start.  Do you absolutely need clean air?  Can't stomach more than 32% of a particular political party?  What about sunny days or number of doctors/thousand. . .

We made a decision to consider the art community and came up with a few interesting options. . . Asheville NC being one of them.  Asheville is a most cool town replete with old hippies, new hippies, lots of artists and enough rednecks (I get to say this, I grew up in rural NW Alabama) to keep the place on an even keel.  We made an anniversary trip out to Western NC and rented an apt. for a week.  Our landlady is now one of my very good friends (Hey Linda - don't be a stranger).  While touring the artist colony in some renovated manufacturing buildings near the river, I met a young very talented blacksmith who told me about a women's welding workshop in Taos NM.  As luck would have it, the workshop registration closed in just a few days and I had the clams and time available to attend. (more on the workshop in another post).  My husband really does love me so we made a trip to NM to poke around a month before the class.

For those of you lucky enough to have experienced this, wow.  I stepped off the plane in Albuquerque and just knew I was home.  It may have been the elevation (a mile up) or the lack of oxygen (20% less), but I honestly don't care why.  Within three months, we were the proud owners of an adobe house in the high desert.  This is where the horses come in.

Unbeknown to us, we live a few hundred yards from a Bureau of Land Management area, which has as residents several bands of wild horses.  They come by the house a few times a week to drink some nasty warm bird shit water from the concrete bird baths I made last year and to also raid my bird feeders.  I put a lot of energy into keeping them out of the feeders, with little luck.  Just think squirrels with hoofs. . .

Our recently adopted rescue pit bull runs with me. My husband loves her dearly, her only utility to me is making him happy and running with me (uses up energy, shows her I'm not on the verge of killing and eating her).  It must be an alpha dog thing - haven't figured it out yet.

Last week we were out for a run and we come across out local band of horses, about seven in total.  I only saw five mares and they were VERY interested in the small pony tied to my waist by a leash.  I'm barefoot and have tied my huaraches to the leash and stuffed them into the back of my shorts. Very vulnerable.  I did get a chance to pet a large grey nose which was nice, but then the mares decided to make a personal connection with the pony, err . .  dog.  It took some considerable arm flapping to convince them that they were truly close enough and not missing out on anything.  What I didn't know is that our wildlife photographer neighbor was taking shots less than a hundred yards away of a newborn foal and who had just stood up.  This likely explains the tranference interest in the dog.

We managed to escape the pod of potential unfulfilled mothers and kept on running.  I love New Mexico.