As a young child I rode horses in the fall at Beak and Skiff, our local apple orchard in Syracuse, New York, but I had never really interacted with horses or large animals. While staying with Kelly and Jenna in Hope, Maine, they had the duty of taking care of a friend’s animals, specifically two horses, two pigs, and two dogs. Ironic; two’s all around.

Each evening Kelly and Jenna would tend to the animals, and I will follow closely but from a distance to observe with my camera. It was intimidating to stand next to the enormous horse partially pictured below, and Kelly and Jenna noticed. “Is this your first time around large animals?” they asked. “Yes…” I hesitantly but not nervously replied. I have a strong, natural intuition about most things and I felt no reason to be anxious around Horse. I held out my hand to Horse’s nostrils and he deeply inhaled, smelling my skin and earthy musk. And then we were both at ease. It was as if we had known each other for a long time in one short moment.

Horse, Hope, Maine, 2009

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 at 8:22 am and is filed under Personal Work, Posts with pictures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.