Terry Golson


Horses are herd animals, which means they prefer to be in a group of their own kind. Feral horses living on open rangeland organize themselves into a family subset of mares, foals, a few youngsters, and a stallion who keeps them together. There are roving bands of bachelors, angling to […]

Friends Over the Fence


I’m incredibly fortunate during this pandemic to be able to continue to ride and take lessons at my boarding barn. I’m even able to enter local schooling shows. I ride six days a week and because I’m competing I have a focus. There’s lots that both Tonka and I have […]

Tonka at Turtle Hill


Remember the Common Mullein? (Here’s my first blog about it.) The “weed” by my front deck? It’s been fun to watch it grow, like a, well, like a weed! From this:   To this!   It’s been a popular landing zone for dragonflies. Honeybees and native bees (there are some […]

Common Mullein and Birds



Last Saturday, Tonka and I competed in our first show over fences. The Hunter/Jumper world is new to me and I left it to my trainer, Stephanie Plaisted, to decide what classes to enter us in. The class list reads to me like a foreign language. “beginner”, “pre-modified”, “open”, “hunter”, […]

Last and First


Yesterday Tonka and I entered our very first jumper show! The day dawned hot and was only going to get steamier. We needed to warmup, but not do it so literally that we got heat exhaustion. Tonka is a calm guy at horse shows, so he didn’t need to be […]

Horse Show Warmup


Yesterday in my lesson I learned a new term: hony. Tonka is a hony. Horse + pony = hony. I’ve never measured Tonka with an accurate stick, but the best guess is that he’s 14.3 hands (a hand is four inches, and you measure from the ground to the top […]

Pony or Horse?



There is only so much training that you can do for the show ring at home. Some things that happen at the horse show only happen at the horse show. So last Sunday I trailered Tonka to a small, relaxed schooling show. The plan was to expose him to jumps […]

Show Ring Training


If you have a horse, you accumulate a lot of gear. I have a cubby at the boarding barn, but that’s not enough storage for the not-in-use blankets, sheets, extra fly masks, bits, boots, grooming tools, etc. etc. Those are kept tucked away in trunks and other containers in my […]

Garage Saddle Storage


Are you and your horse doing what you love? After six good years with Tonka I stumbled onto a sport that he has told me is what makes him really happy. He likes to fly. We’ve had fewer than 20 lessons over jumps. We’re sensibly staying at a low jump […]

Joy of Flying