Maria and I have each heard the call of the horses this year, but in very different ways. I have been called to write about the horses, perhaps to speak on their behalf as some very powerful forces seek to drive the New York Carriage Horses away from people and out of the city.

I have been writing about them all year, I believe they are calling to animal lovers everywhere to awaken and begin a new social order, a new paradigm that treats animals and people with dignity and compassion and does not only see them as piteous and helpless beings that must be taken away from human beings and hidden.

I believe they talk to me, often in the night, they inspire me and bring me messages and lead me to write about them. It is perhaps the most extraordinary writing experience of my life, I am struggling to understand it, but I am in it’s grip.

Maria is drawn to the horses in a different way, drawn to their physical beings, their size, their gentleness and profound spirituality. Horses have ancient connections to people, I believe we are all connected to them, even if so many of us – myself included – have been afraid to see it.

She is especially connected to a young Percheron named Piper, a rescued horse bred as a show horse. Piper is a huge as she is gentle and playful. Maria brushes Piper before she rides her, as horse people do, to bond them to the animal.

I was only on a horse once in my life, and was nearly killed when the horse bolted and ran for miles until a tree caught my head and sent me off, unconscious on the ground. I was eight or none, I have ridden horses a few times, I do not feel fear of them, especially this gentle creature, Piper, who is so alert, curious and affectionate.

Neither do I care to ride them all that much. Maria is planning to spend a week at Blue-Star, it seems a wonderful idea to me, it is a direction she is heading in, there is something both spiritual and creative going on, as there often is with Maria. I am excited to see how it unfolds.

I am powerful connected to the horses also, they speak to the future of the animals in our world, they are in great peril. If they are taken from the city, they will vanish from our consciousness and from lives of meaning and purpose, they will vanish from our world forever, a horrific mistake that can never be undone.