Holiday traditions

NEWSLETTER Volume 1, Number 5, December 2004

December! December begins what my friend Harriet calls "the glittering social season." By this, she does not mean a series of glamorous balls where we all wear our finest clothes and jewelry. Rather, it is code for the fact that there is now too much snow and ice on the ground to allow for much riding (and the recognition that it will stay that way for three or four months - not longer, if we are lucky!). The "glittering social season" in our part of North Idaho means that a group of horsewomen who in the summer get together for trail rides and to school our horses, now get together for potlucks, to watch the latest horse video that someone has bought, and to share stories of horses loved and rides taken.

I have to admit that I'm not much into "the holidays." I'm troubled by the crass commercialism of it all, especially this year, but I do like some of the traditions of deep winter - bringing a tree and greenery into the house, the lighting of candles and other tiny lights to call back the daylight, and the sharing of food. I love to visit local barns that have been decorated for the season (although I believe that any horse has too much dignity to be comfortable dressed in one of those faux Reindeer antler sets you can buy!). Some of my horsewomen friends have traditions they follow. At HarrietÍs, houseguests get a choice of cleaning up the kitchen and dining room after Christmas dinner, or cleaning stalls in the barn. She says that the horsemen and women usually opt for the kitchen, taking a rare break from barn chores, while the non-horse owners typically find great delight in heading out to the cold barn. My friend Ann and her husband Jim, inspired by the desert Arabs who regularly brought their horses into their tents, bring one of their horses into the house each Christmas morning. (That's Ann and her Paso Fino, Paco, celebrating Christmas last year that you can see in the photo here). This year, my husband Steve and I plan to initiate a new tradition, Shadow is going to pull our Christmas tree out of the woods and back to the house. It will likely become one of his regular jobs. Lida (womentalkhorses.com web-designer) has a lovely memory from her youth in the Czech Republic. Every Christmas Eve, the family would have a traditional dinner, open presents, then bundle into a horse drawn carriage to travel to Midnight Mass. She loved to see that beautiful horse waiting for her! If you have some horse-related holiday traditions to share, please post them on our bulletin board, we would enjoy reading them.

Whatever traditions you share with your equine friends, Lida and I wish you, and your horses, a safe, healthy, and happy holiday season.

Anna Banks editor@womentalkhorses.com
Princeton, Idaho

(For more about Ann and Paco and her other horses, contact Ann at 509.878.1817)

Anna Banks
Moon Hill Ranch, Idaho