Presenting Our Guest Author – Karin Winegar
Please join me in welcoming our guest author, Karin Winegar, author of Horse Lovers: Unpacking the Female Fascination.
She writes to us about sustaining our relationship with horses and never stopping, whether it’s riding or caring for them all our lives. Karin touches on the benefits that we receive from lifelong contact with them.
Enjoy!
Never Stop. Never.
By Karin Winegar, author of Horse Lovers: Unpacking the Female Fascination
“Are you still riding?” the silver-haired woman asked me.
I’ve had to get used to this question instead of just bristling with incredulity and giving a facetious answer such as, “And do what? Sit home and knit?”
I’ve been riding since my father got me a pony when I was nine and had pestered him for one from the time I could speak.
It has taken time to accept that although I not only ride, but drive, jump and splash horses in various bodies of water when available, I look older than I feel or live. A life of riding—well before sunblock, before helmets and, later, hats—has resulted in a youthful body but a face that sometimes prompts people to ask if my mother is my sister. (She’s 99, didn’t ride and took better care of her skin).
So, I answered civilly that yes, I was, and that I intend to ride as long as I breathe.
“And what about you? “
“I had to let go of my horse three years ago,” said the woman, who told me her name was Chris. We were both at a horse expo where I was selling my new book about the bond between women and horses. Chris was there, why? Maybe to get a sniff of the love she had forsaken.
We compared ages. I was a bit older, but not by much.
“And how do you feel now—without a horse?” I asked, plunging right into one of the most intimate questions I could ask a stranger.
“Like I am dying,” Chris said.
“Oh my gosh, you’ve got to get back with one somehow. How about leasing or half leasing or volunteering?”
By the time she walked away, she looked cheered up and resolved. She had my blessing to not give up on horses—a vital nutrient, in my long experience, for happiness.
For several years, my friend Anna had volunteered at a nearby thoroughbred rescue stable where she enjoyed grooming and handling the horses, although she didn’t ride them. She had wanted a horse but never owned one.
When her son died in an accident, she told me, “The only thing that helped was the horses. I would go out and just brush them for hours. And I’d smell them and listen to them breathe and chew. “
For those of us smitten early and hard with horses, they are the recharger pack to our life force, our proven power source, our escape into a timeless place of peace and adventure.
Approaching my seventieth birthday, I booked a trip as part of a historic and fast ride in Scotland. By the time Covid delays were past, so was my seventy-first birthday. With six other American and European women, I did something called Riding the Marches or the Common Ridings, galloping the countryside with about 200 Scots riders for many hours daily.
The oldest man in the ride was a lean and fit retired local rugby referee of 72. I was the oldest woman by far. Local families and school classes turned out by the hundreds to cheer us on from the roadsides, and although my boots, breeches, jacket and helmet didn’t betray my age, my face did. People stared at me; so, I shouted at them, “Yes! I can do this, too! Why aren’t you doing it?”
I had come several thousand miles to run around in unknown territory on an unfamiliar horse. I had the time of my life—or one of them, anyway. And when my little group saw I could more than keep up with them, we became fast friends, horse crazy sisters forever.
I met Carol at a class reunion where she was presenting a talk about riding in the toughest horse race in the world, the Mongol Derby. She is about 15 years younger than I am, yet I felt that horsey kinship that erases distance. The Mongol Derby involves a couple dozen Mongol horses per rider galloping a total of 621 miles over rough terrain in unforgiving conditions. Since Carol’s idea of a good time was endurance rides of 100 miles or more, it was her logical next step. She not only finished well up in that first Mongol Derby pack, but four years later, after retiring from her law job, she tied for eleventh place of 46 riders.
Mongol philosophy says the seat of consciousness is in the chest, which contains our hiimori or wind-horse. This creature’s power needs maintaining. Riding a great, quick pony strengthens this and improves your destiny.
Over many years of talking with women who love horses, I note our life force strengthened by riding, by handling, by facing all the micro and macro risks and surviving, through time in the pasture, on the trail or in the stable. It is with horses throughout our lives, and to the end of our lives if we choose, that we live vividly and with joy.
I choose that joy.
About Karin
Karin Winegar is a horsewoman from Albert Lea, Minnesota where she grew up competing in 4-H Club as well as regional and state horse shows. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she took her horse. An award-winning journalist, she was a staff writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune for 20 years. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Conde Nast Traveler and Los Angeles Times as well as publications devoted to horses, sailing, gender equity and environmental issues, among others. She has won Lowell Thomas Awards for investigative journalism and maritime writing, Equestrian Industry Media Recognition awards for feature writing and American Quarter Horse Association awards for media commentary. Her non-fiction book SAVED: Rescued Animals and The Lives They Transform features a foreword by Dr. Jane Goodall, a prologue Dr. Temple Grandin and photography by Judy Olausen. She worked nights and weekends as a professional carriage driver for seven years. She also was media director for the Animal Humane Society. Winegar is based in St. Paul, Minnesota where she is founder of Horse Feed Press custom books.
