If you want to know Ken Norman and understand him, you need to see him with a donkey or a horse. I’ve known Ken a long time, he is one of the first people I met when I came up to my farm, he has seen my life from the inside out, and stayed with me.

Ken, like many men, is not a natural talker. He can be grumpy, remote, distracted. He doesn’t talk very much about how he is feeling, like me he has little patience for foolishness, ignorance or cruelty, or the petty jealousies of humans. Yet there is love all around him.

He reminds us why it is that animals need to be with people, to live among us in our everyday lives. If you saw Ken’s face around Sarge, the blind horse heading to live at Blue-Star Equiculture Farm in Palmer, Mass., you can hear him talk, see the emotion inside of him, hear the beating of a big heart.

He was speaking clearly. It’s okay, he said to Sarge, you are going to a good place, you are going to be all right. I believe Sarge heard every word. All around us, animals are being taken away, forgotten by human beings, denied their work and history and connection to us.

They belong with us, Ken does not need to be told this, he sees it every day.