letters to a little white horse

April 7, 2025
Dear Pippin,

Despite the bit of snow we got last night and the fact that it’s going to be below freezing tonight, it is spring. You are shedding, although you are holding onto your wizard beard and fetlock feathers just in case.

I remember taking this photo with you four years ago, walking through muddy cornfields in Hilliard to get to the bridle trail at Prairie Oaks. How could we not stop under the flowers so I could smell them and you could have a snack?

I started to look back through all of our pictures because it’s anniversary time: April of 2020 being the month when I first saw your photo on the Horses Without Humans website, when John said, “He looks like a unicorn!” and when we somehow managed to navigate covid lockdowns to go visit you.

Five years have gone by?! Looking for this photo brought me to so many more— it’s definitely time to sort through them, share them here with your friends, and maybe put together an actual old-school album for me.

You and I are about to have a giant adventure at Equine Affaire. Luke asked us to be in his Thursday afternoon demo, and we are stepping up! I am so proud of all the work we’ve been doing. You breathe fire so often, but you are also learning how to handle yourself during those moments, and four days of living at the Ohio State Fairgrounds are going to give us SO many chances to practice.

Did I mention you now have a “calling card” to hand out to any new friends you might make? We’d better get some posts up on your Instagram!

xoxo

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ABOUT “DEAR PIPPIN”

In the covid days of 2020, when everyone was adopting rescue dogs and cats, a rescue horse came into my life. He was a 9 year-old Arabian I named Pippin. The whirlwind of being a new horse owner made it difficult to sit down to write about the experience anywhere else but in my journal. I’d been neglecting my blog, and when I finally did want to start sharing our story I didn’t know where to begin— so much had happened it felt overwhelming.

It’s funny, though, how the right idea will often present itself seemingly out of the blue: reading through my journals I found that I’d written Pippin occasional letters, and these felt more real and less “crafted” than any blog post I tried to write. So I started writing more of them and am now giving Dear Pippin a space of its own. While I consider this project a personal one — I look forward to having an archive of letters to read as the years go by! — sharing these letters somehow just made sense. (And I actually think it’s Pippin who wanted me to share them with you.)