When I first saw the news in the wee hours of yesterday morning that David Bowie had died far too young by a terrible disease, I cursed as my gut twisted, and I tried to wrestle myself back to sleep. When I first saw his last gift to us mere mortals in his music video 'Lazarus', I didn't feel like cursing and crying anymore, I felt profound awe that a man would share the intimate experience of death with the world in such a bold and vulnerable way. A groundbreaking artist to the end- It was just so damned Bowie. The baby and I spent the rest of the day getting her all taught up on Goblin King by watching all of his insanely crazy work that spans more than 4 decades of humanity, and we danced our pants off in the living room of our pioneer house to Fame and The Jean Genie and of course Let's Dance.  I can bring myself to feel anger about cancer being what it is, but I can't bring myself to feel sadness about David Bowie's death. He was always so ...

On Sunday Itxa moved to yet another new barn - this time to enter dressage boot camp with one of the most impressive trainers and kindest people I've ever met. And for the first time in a long time I have hope for this little mare.  She's shown brief glimpses of potential amidst so much inner turmoil, but now she's in the right hands to actually succeed.  While I'm really so pleased that she was able to do some of this on her first day: I'm even more happy that she did some of this:  She had been so wound up and tense and disenfranchised the past couple months that it was really meaningful to watch her release all this stress she's been holding. She's been chewing and yawning and standing politely (for the most part) a lot since she got to her new home, and that is really a huge part of what I'm hoping to work through in the next few months.  Beyond any goal or hope or forward looking idea, though, it was just powerful to watch her yawn and be content in...

From earlier this week. One of my favorite things about a snowy winter is how pristinely clean the horses hooves get, so I can see the incredible art and science that is a perfect hoof. The anatomy, the ecosystem, the beautiful colors. Basically, there is something really wrong with me. #itxagram #horsesofinstagram #horsenation #barefoothorse A photo posted by Lorraine (@lorraine.jackson) on Jan 2, 2016 at 10:08pm PST

If omens are real, today's was not a good one. It was supposed to be a tremendously productive day writing about numerous inspiring, bizarre, endearing and death-defying horses and their people from around the globe, but instead I spent the day fighting a cold, holding a cranky baby, and constantly refreshing the home page to see if my company's servers had come back online yet. (They haven't.) I stopped all of my fretting long enough to enjoy the triumphant return of Sherlock on PBS, and was shook up a moment by this lovely bit from our protagonist:  "Fear is wisdom in the face of danger. It is nothing to be ashamed of." While I'm quite fortunate not to be in any eminent danger, my situation is admittedly less safe than it used to be. Freelancing can be quite good work, and other times precarious and unrewarding work. And I can't say I've been overwhelmingly fearless in the face of my new full time responsibilities.  That being said, I ...

Missed me? I've missed me! That's a bit unsettling and narcissistic, isn't it? But show me a blog that isn't a little unsettling and narcissistic, and I'll make you dinner. Please enter your dietary restrictions in the comments. It's a couple days away from 2016, and I'm all aflutter. Rather than an unrealistic fad diet or a commitment to swear less (LOL), I've decided to attempt something much more ridiculous in the year 2016: I'm going to write every single day for the next year. Some of it will be published here, and some of it will be published at my day gig , and some of it will be published on my instagram feed , but I'm committing myself to writing one of these three places every day of 2016, and see who I am on the other side of it. 2015 was big, what with introducing the Copper Pot into the world and flailing about somewhat aimlessly with a horse who hates life, and then quitting my full time job. So I want to be absolutely sure th...

Sometimes when I'm a little stressed from working three jobs and not being able to sleep and worrying about money and my dumb horse, I look at the baby somewhere in my immediate vicinity or in my arms, and I instantly feel better. She's like the human manifestation of an orange cat's purr. But sometimes all those things are happening, and my baby is far away being babysat by a loving grandma while I sit and fester at a cubicle. For those occasions, I just close my eyes.... Okay, no, first I open my Spotify and locate the Reggae. I find the classic reggae favorites playlist, hit shuffle, and THEN I close my eyes. Then I imagine I'm back in my sassy rental car cruising around the Kalanianaole Highway on Oahu with the windows down in March, the smell and distant sound of the ocean permeating the cabin. My fancy mini bananas are on the seat next to me, and I literally don't have a single care in the whole entire world. I went on that trip to see my BFF get m...

1. Marriage Equality. Such a good day. 2. I've got a barn and a family baby shower in the next 4 days, which normally sounds just terrifying, except it's with all my favorite people, so it will be awesome. 3. A puppy came to the office today. I got nothing done for an hour and my hands smell like puppy. #winning 4. The barn now has a new outdoor jumping arena with new sandy footing, and the indoor arenas are getting rubber composite footing. If you're not a horse person, I'm sorry you had to struggle through that. If you're a horse person, thanks for struggling through everything else to get to that part, because, I KNOW, RIGHT? So exciting. 5. I had a salami sandwich for breakfast. No regrets. 6. Relevant to the previous item, my baby doctor lady ran some tests and told me I need to eat more spinach and red meat, drink a gatorade, and keep my feet up. So I'm pretty sure I've been medically ordered to have a relaxing barbecue every day for the re...