Stop and smell the anything

So, you may have noticed that this is Thursday, not Wednesday (or maybe you didn’t, but that’s ok too). I was behind on just about everything this week, because: reader, I bought a horse.

What? you may ask. Why? you may also ask, if you are my husband or mother. Here’s the thing: for the past few years I’ve been taking riding lessons with Ron Sirota at the Double R Ranch. I followed him & his wife Renee from Marana to Pearce (which is 1.5 hours from my house, and thus a pretty heinous commute for a riding lesson) when they bought the old Grapevine Canyon Ranch, because they are my friends and I loved their horses and the Cochise mountains are goddamn gorgeous. For the past 2 years or so, I’ve been especially fond of a horse named Lady, who is a feisty-but-sweet little quarter horse paint. I always felt, with Lady, like our lessons together were collaborations, that she tried as hard as I did, and that we understood one another.

Last Friday I went to Pearce for a lesson and learned, heartbreakingly, that the Double R was closing. It was always a bit of a daredevil move, buying such an enormous property and making it into a working ranch again. Things went wrong, just barely, and there you go. I had hoped to keep riding there for many years to come, and reader, there were tears.

That said, I also cried when I found out Lady had already been sold, but – twist! – then it turned out that maybe she hadn’t been? But, our house is in the middle of the city, so I knew I’d have to board her somewhere if I went down this path, and luckily my friend Erin agreed to help me out with trailering & possibly even housing Lady for awhile. Luckily I found a spot at the Tucson Equestrian Center (not far from the original Double R and muuuuuuuch closer to my house) and Erin and I brought Lady out on Monday. On Tuesday we had our first ride, and I gave Lady a bath, and we are both now beginning, I hope to feel settled in to our new reality. This is a bit of a scary new adventure, but also a really, really exciting one. The TEC borders 3,500 acres of state land with many pristine trails to ride, and let me just say: Lady is a delight. I’ve learned so much already, and I know I will learn a great deal more.

Anyway, now you have a comic too! I would be remiss if I didn’t call out the direct inspiration from this Tumblr post that I saw via Small Beer Press. And since I’m bringing up Small Beer Press, I should mention that I’m really excited about Sofia Samatar’s new novel The Winged Histories, which SBP just released. I will be buying it!