A Hibernian sage once wrote that there are 3 things a man never forgets: the girl of his early youth, a devoted teacher, and a great horse. -C.J.J. Mullen
…Wild to hold, though I seem tame. -Thomas Wyatt
Show me your horse and I will tell you who you are. -English saying
The horse, through all its trials, has preserved the sweetness of paradise in its blood. -Johannes Jensen
Deidre could and did say for herself that the horses had liked her, that they did a good job for her, that, whatever they represented in terms of disappointed hopes and failed expectations, they themselves welcomed her into their company, approached her, greeted her, watched what she was doing. Once upon a time that had been enough, more than enough. You got up, threw on some clothes, ran out to the barn, and, whatever you were feeling, sleepy, anxious about money, achy, fearful, hard, they plucked you right out of that with their pricked ears and big eyes and opened nostrils. Of course they were looking for their feed- some would be rattling their feed buckets, or kicking the doors, knowing like clocks that you were late. –but only a fool thought a horse was purely a processor of hay and oats. Ah, well, she missed them a bit. -Jane Smiley(author of Horse Heaven)
One of the earliest religious disappointments in a young girls life devolves upon her unanswered prayer for a horse. -Phyllis Theroux
Peaceful voice when he neighs.
I am everlasting and peaceful
I stand for my horse. -Navajo Horse Song
…I have to be a girl, but when there are hillsides of grass and forests with lowhanging boughs and secret stables in loquat trees, I am a horse. -Catherine Petroski
And if a man should see
The horse’s magical face,
He would tear out his own impotent tongue
And give it to the horse. For
This magical creature is surely worthy of it.
Then we should hear words.
Words large as apples. Thick
As honey or buttermilk.
Words which penetrate like flame
And, once with in the soul, like fire in some hut,
Illuminate its wretched trappings.
Words which do not die
And which we celebrate in song.
-Nikolai Alekseevich Zabolotsky
I hear in my heart
I hear in its ominous pulses,
All day on the road,
The hoofs of invisible horses.
-Louis Imogen Guiney
There on the red mares back she had no fear. -Ursula K. LeGuin
No mortal could hope to manage those reins. Not even the Gods are allowed to touch them… -Ted Hughes
He has not only taught her 17 ways of breaking her neck, but 22 ways of avoiding it. -Mark Twain
…and being stupid with terror flung myself from my horse, forgetting that it was much safer to trust to his four feet than to my two, and to an animal without nerves, dizziness or the foreknowledge of death, than to my palsied, cowardly self. -Isabella Bird
…and on she went, and cleared that last hurdle solitary and alone… -Mark Twain
O, For a horse with wings… -William Shakespeare
….come, let me taste my horse… -William Shakespeare
…and no one would have known that the horse she was riding and the race she was trying to win was not of then and there, but of her own special within and forever. -Sir Laurens van der Posr
…he had been led, struggling away from it by a soft-voiced human whose compassion he felt but could not understand. -Helen Griffiths There was thunder in its nostrils and lightening in its legs; its eyes shone like stars and the hair on its neck and tail trailed like clouds. -Paul Goble
He will carry you far and will run faster than the buffalo. He comes from the sky. He is as the wind: gentle but sometimes frightening. Look after him always. -Paul Goble
Its nostrils flare, displaying an inner spirit as magnificent as the might wind. It is the waves of the ocean and the fire of the setting sun. It saves us from the world. -Adele von Rust McCormick
Then we began to ride. My soul smooth’d itself out, a long-cramp’s scroll freshening anf fluttering in the wind. -Robert Browning
There are two things for which animals are to be envied: they know nothing of future evils or of what people say about them. -Voltaire
Let us ride together,
Blowing mane and hair,
Careless of the weather,
Miles ahead of care.
Ring of hoof and snaffle,
Swing of waist and hip,
Trotting down the twisted rode
With the world let slip.
Let us laugh together,
Merry as of old,
To the creek of leather,
And the morning cold.
Break into a canter;
Shout to bank and tree,
Rocking down the waking trail,
Steady hand and knee.
Take the life of cities!
Here’s the life for me,
‘Twere a thousand pities
not to gallop free,
so we’ll ride together,
comrade, you and I,
careless of the weather,
letting care go by.
-Anonymous
Only the Gods could put a halter on him; only the heroes and poets could ride him-and even they could not always keep their seats. -Louis Untermeyer
Free. This is what it is to be a horseman. -Morgan Llewelyn
…when I looked at life from the saddle and was near to heaven as it was possible to be. -Frances, Countess of Warwick
Riding is simple…its just not easy. -Anonymous
The horse of Achilles stood apart from their battle weeping because they had learned that their charioteer had fallen in the dust by the hand of the man-slaying Hector. When Zeus saw how they grieved, he took pity on them. ‘Poor creatures, why did I give you to King Peleus, a mortal destined to die-you who are immortal. -Homer, The Illiad
There is something about jumping a horse over a fence, something that makes you feel good. Perhaps it is the risk, the gamble. In any event it is a thing I need. -William Faulkner
The eyes, circled by his sad and beautiful darkness, were so sorrowful, lonely, gentle, and nobly tragic, that they killed all other emotions except love. -T.H. White
…and he whispered to the horse ‘Trust no man in whose eyes you do not see yourself reflected as an equal.’ -Unknown
Again the early morning sun was generous with its warmth. All the sounds dear to a horseman were around me – the snorts of the horses as they cleared their throats, the gentle swish of their tails, the tinkle of the irons as we flung the saddles over their backs – little sounds of no importance, but they stay in the unconscious library of the memory. -Wynfors Vaughan
Anyone who is concerned about his dignity would be well advised to keep away from horses. -Duke of Edinburgh
When your homing carloads swing
Past us down the crispy lanes,
And your dazzling headlines fling,
Snow white roses on our reins,
Would you choose your sheltered flight,
Would we take your cushioned ease,
For the wide and scented night
And the horse between our knees?
-W.H. Olgivie
A canter is the cure for every evil. -Benjamin Disraeli
Gypsy gold does not chink and glitter. It gleams in the sun and neighs in the dark. -Saying of the Gladdagh Gypsies of Galway
It takes a good deal of physical courage to ride a horse. This, however, I have. I get it at about forty cents a flask and take it as required. -Stephen Leacock
There is something about riding down the street on a prancing horse that makes you feel like something, even when you ain’t a thing. -Will Rodgers
Speak you mind but ride a fast horse. -Unknown
Some glory in their birth
Some in their wealth
Some in their body’s force
Some in their hounds and hawks,
Some in their horse.
-William Shakespeare
God made the horse from the breath of the wind, the beauty of the earth and the soul of the angel…May they forever run within our hearts. -Bonnie Piper
Misfortunes come on horseback and depart on foot. -French proverb
Be wary of the horse with a sense of humor. -Pam Brown
When I can’t ride anymore, I shall still keep horses as long as I can hobble about with a bucket and wheel barrel. When I can’t hobble, I shall roll my wheelchair out to the fence of the field where my horses graze, and watch them. -Monica Dickens
To learn all that a horse could teach was a world of knowledge, but only a beginning…Look into a horse’s eye and you know instantly if you can trust him. -Mary O’Hara
A horse which stops dead just before a jump and thus propels its rider into a graceful arc provides a splendid excuse for general merriment. -Duke of Edinburgh
A horse is dangerous at both ends and uncomfortable in the middle. -Ian Flemming
He flung himself on his horse and rode off madly in all directions. -Stephen Leacock
On horseback, he seemed to require as many hands as a Hindu God, at least four for clutching the reins, and two more for patting the horse soothingly on the neck. -Saki
I purchased some classics on horsecare…I gradually came to understand that they were like nineteenth century religious tomes on how to save your soul: objective, good; instructions, extremely detailed; practical application, impossible. -C.J.J. Mullen
The truth is that horses exhibit, in an exaggerated form, many of the worse characteristics of people. They are greedy, envious, malicious, slothful, superstitious, and stupid. They are congenital hysterics and each one is, ominously, a prospective homicide. If horses could talk, they would lie. -Owen Ulph
Other animals ran only when they had a reason, but the Horse would run for no reason whatsoever, as if to run out of his own skin. He had no desire to chase, or to kill, but only to fly on and on and on until he dwindled into a dot, melted into a swoon, blurred into a shadow, and vanished into vacancy. -Rabindranath Tagore
It was just as pleasant to spend the day’s end grooming the black horse a second time. Some evenings I slipped onto his bare, warm back and sat a while. In the few short hours since I had ridden him, I missed the ferocity of his thoughts, his unswerving attention, his consciousness beaming back at me. Riding him was like being carried on the sweet back of the universe. To myself I joked that (he) had the mind of a God. -Barbara Dimmick
But the horse was mine, I believed, because he worked his heart out for me, and because I felt stronger, clearer, quieter whenever I so much as laid a hand on him. He’d grown in these past months, taken on a presence I had not created. I worked around the barn thinking of little else. -Barbara Dimmick
I slipped into (his) stall, wrapped my arms around his neck, pressed my face into the satin coat, and took long deep breaths as if I could inhale him into my soul. - Barbara Dimmick
It turned full dark while I stood there. I pulled my collar up around my neck, and kicked my heels against the ground to warm my feet. The black horse grazed nearby, a little above me on the hill, and as the stars brightened above us, he made a horse-shaped hole in the night. -Barbara Dimmick
But we hermits in the horse world have the luxury of ignoring all the holidays we like: Horses eat, drink, and dirty stalls every day of the year. -Barbara Dimmick
The barn was empty of the big black horse but the world was not. - Barbara Dimmick
Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thou must learn the thoughts of the noble horse whom thou wouldst ride. The horse is a wise animal. Let him show you the best and most natural way to accomplish a desired end. -Johann Wolfgang Geothe
Look back on our struggle for freedom, trace our present day’s strength to its source; and you’ll find that man’s pathway to glory is strew with the bones of a horse. -Anonymous
Where in this wide world can a person find nobility without pride, friendship without envy or beauty without vanity? Here, where grace is laced with muscle and strength by gentleness confined. He serves without servility, he has fought without enmity. There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent; there is nothing so quick, nothing more patient. The world's past has been borne on his back. We are his heirs; he is our inheritance. The horse. -Ronald Duncan
If you have it, it is for life. It is a disease for which there is no cure. You will go on riding even after they have to haul you up onto a comfortable wise old cob, with feet like inverted buckets and a back like a fireside chair. -Monica Dicken
Don’t give your son money. As far as you can afford it, give him horses. -Winston Churchill
I’ve fallen in love with my horse. It’s a safer bet. We all know from my illustrious past that I should be sticking to men with four legs. -Sharon Stone
My purpose is, indeed, a horse of the color. -William Shakespeare
…always taking more care of him than of yourself; which is right and reasonable, seeing as how the horse is the best animal of the two. -George Borrow
A horse’s eye disquiets me: it has an expression of alarm that may at any moment be translated into action. -E.V. Lucas
We attend stables, as we attend church, in our best clothes, thereby no doubt showing the degree of respect due to horses. -Osbert Sitwell
A horseman should know neither fear nor anger. -James Rarey
To seek the wind’s power, the rain’s cleansing and the sun’s radiant life, one need only look to the horse. -Anonymous
And the hooves of the horses as they run shake the crumbling field. -Virgil
A bad day riding is better than a good day fishing. -Anonymous
The best cure in the world for writers block is a canter through the woods. -Cooky McClung
A person’s strength flows from his horse. -Anonymous
For the wonderful brain of man,
However mighty its force,
Had never achieved its lordly plan,
Without the aid of a horse.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Sell the cow, buy the sheep, but never be without the horse. -Irish proverb
Wherever man has left his footprints in the long ascent from barbarism to civilization we will find the hoof print of a horse beside it. -John Trotwood Moore
She was so light on her feet, she danced down the planks and hardly seemed to feel the ground; and she moved with a swaying to and fro of her deer’s head in a way to make you think of open moors and flowing airs. The gleaming sun was delighted with her bay coat. -Ernest Rhys
Every time you ride, you’re either teaching or un-teaching your horse. -Gordon Wright
But whether you regard the horse with awe or love, it is impossible to escape the sheer power of his presence, the phenomenal he exerts on the lives of all of us who decided at some stage that we wanted to become riders. -Mary Wahless
The blood runs hot in the Thoroughbred, and the courage runs deep. In the best of them, pride is limitless. This is their heritage and they carry it like a banner. What they have, they use. -C.W. Anderson
If your horse says no, you either asked the wrong question or asked the question wrong. -Pat Parelli
The hardest thing to do on a horse is nothing at all. -Onris McKinnon
When you are young and you fall off a horse, you may break something. When you’re my age and you fall off, you splatter. -Roy Rogers
Nothing wrong with this horse that a bullet couldn’t cure. -Tim Stockdale
No locker room speeches, no playbooks. No contracts or free agents. Not even a word spoken between teammates. Doesn’t that make it the greatest of all team sports? -Unknown
In grateful and reverent memory of the Empire’s horses (some 375,000) who fell in the Great War (1914-1918). Most obediently, and often most painfully, they died. -Church of St. Jude, London
The daughter who won’t lift a finger in the house is the same child who cycles madly off in the pouring rain to spend all morning mucking out a stable. -S. Armstrong
To be loved by a horse…should fill us with awe, for we have not deserved it. -Marion Garretty
If riding were all blue ribbons and bright lights, I would have quit long ago. -George Morris
…virtue shall be bound into the hair of thy forelock…I have given thee the power of flight without wings. -The Koran
Why is it that a woman will ignore homicidal tendencies in a horse, but will be furios at a man for leaving the toilet seat up. -Unknown
The kick of a quiet horse strikes strong. -Armenian proverb
A good horse is never a bad color. -Unknown
I am your equal. I am a wild creature that can never be like you. I have heart, courage and the game spirit that is my heritage, and I will be respected. I will be taught, and I will please, and maybe in time I will become your intimate. But I will never be your possession. Mine is a fierce love, which knows no mercy for failure, no sympathy for weakness. I have come from the desert with its closeness to the spirit of nature which you do not understand. I was born of the wind. Mine is a warrior spirit. I cannot be humiliated in punishment or defeated even in death. For my spirit lives on in my children’s children. -Unknown
You will find it is always easier to walk if there is a horse between your legs. -Tex Bix Bende
No heaven can be if my horse isn’t there to welcome me. -LM
Honor lies on the mane of a horse. -Herman Melville
Twilight gathers and ends our play.
Hoofs in the distance echo away;
Shadows into the dusk we pass…
Come what may, we have had our day
Over the grass.
-Will H Ogilvie
This most noble beast is the most beautiful, the swiftest and of the most highest courage of domesticated animals. His long mane and tail adorn him and beautify him. He is of a fiery temperament, but good tempered, obedient, docile and well-mannered. -Perdo Garcia Conde
Let us look beyond the ears of our own horses so that we may see the good in one another’s. -Unknown
Four things greater than all things are- Women and Horses and Power and War. -Rudyard Kipling
She was iron-sinew’d and satin skinn’d. Ribb’d like a drum and limb’d like a deer. Fierce as the fire and fleet as the wind—There was nothing she couldn’t climb or clear. -Adam Lindsay Gordon
The mare set off for home with the speed of a swallow, and going as smoothly and silently. I never had dreamed of such a motion, fluent and graceful, and ambient, soft as the breeze flitting over the flowers, but swift as the summer lightening. -Richard Dodridge Blockmore
Her eyes drink the delicate horizon moving behind the song. Deep sink the skies, a well of voices.
Go anywhere in England where there are natural, wholesome, contented, and really nice English people; and what do you find? That the stables are the real center of the household. -George Bernard Shaw
There are only two emotions that belong in the saddle; one is a sense of humor and the other is patience. -John Lyons
The only approbation a rider should covet is that of his horse. -E. Beudant
It will be nice to see the effect of veritable whiskey upon one who has been accustomed only to the simpler forms of entertainment…I don’t think there will be anything spectacular but I want to ask you one thing, just in case. Don’t let me take any horses home with me. -Dorothy Parker
What is a horse, but God’s subtle way of proving the attainability of perfection? -Unknown
What are riding horses, but purchased enemies, whom you pamper into strength, as well as inclination, to kick your brains out? -James Beresford
Straight away, all in the front of the wind, and scattering clouds around her, all I knew of the speed we made was the frightful flash of her shoulders, and her mane like trees in a tempest. I felt the earth under us rushing away and the air left far behind us and my breath came and went, and I prayed to God and was sorry to be so late of it. -Miguel de Cervontes
There are more important things in life than horses,
There are more important things in life than food,
But sometimes when I’m eating or riding,
There’s nothing else in life that seems half so good.
-Ruby Ferguson
My experience of horses is that they never throw away a chance to go lame, and that in all respects they are well meaning and unreliable animals. I have also observed that if you refuse a high price for a favorite horse, he will go and lay down somewhere and die. -Mark Twain
I know the horse too well. I have known the horse in war and in peace, and there is no place where a horse is comfortable. A horse thinks of too many thins to do which you do not expect. He is apt to bite you in the leg when you think he is half asleep. The horse has too many caprices, and he is too much given to initiative. He invents too many new ideas. No, I don’t want anything to do with a horse. -Mark Twain
The boy who rode on slightly before him sat on a horse as if he’d been born to it- which he was, but as if- were he begot by malice or mischance into some queer land where horses never were, he would have found them anyway: would have known there was something missing for the world to be right, or he right in it and would have set forth to wander wherever it was needed for as long as it took until he came upon one, and he would have known that that was what he sought, and it would have been. -Cormac McCarthy
All she ever thinks about is riding with the wind. -The Corrs
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. -Revelation 19:11
For they really belong, not to man, but to that country of junipers and sage, of deep arroys, mesas…and freedom. -Will James
The future has been losing the wisdom of the past ever since the freeway bypassed the corral…Damn! -Ken Alstad
The good thing about talking to your horse is he don’t talk back. -Unknown
The wildest broncos are those you rode someplace else. -Unknown
Having a jealous wife means if you come home with hair of your coat, you’d better have the horse to match. -Unknown
You can’t tell a horse’s gait ‘till she’s broke. -Unknown
The best color on a horse is fat. -Unknown
Saddle your horse before ‘sassin’ the boss. -Unknown
When they lay me down to rest
Put my spurs and rope upon my chest.
Get my friends to carry me
And then go turn my horses free.
-Ken Chrissley
Ain’t nuthin like ridin’ a fine horse in a new country. -Augustus MacCrae
If I was an artist like you, I would draw a true picture of Traveller; representing his fine proportions, muscular figure, deep chest, short back, strong haunches, flat legs, small head, broad forehead, delicate ears, quick eye, small feet, and black mane and tail. Such a picture would inspire a poet, whose genius could then depict his worth, and describe his endurance of toil, hunger, thirst, heat, and cold; and the dangers and suffering through which he has passed. He could dialate upon his sagacity and affections, and his invariable response to every wish of his rider. He might even imagine his thoughts through the long night marches and days of battle through which he has passed. But I am no artist Markie, and can therefore only say he is a Confederate grey. -General Robert E. Lee
…Whose only fit companion is his horse. -Unknown
You have only to climb on his back and wish yourself anywhere in the world- and, no matter how far the distance, in a flash of time too short to count, you will find yourself there. It is this, Your Highness, that makes my horse so wonderful. -The Arabian Knights
Yet when the books have been read and reread, it boils down to the horse, his human companion, and what goes on between them. -Walter Farley
I never encountered a horse in whose soul there was no harmony to call on. -Vicki Hearne
It is the horse’s gift to connect us with Heaven and our own footsteps. -Ronni Sweet
For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings, they are other nations caught within ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the Earth. -Henry Beston
It is impossible to enjoy riding thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. -Jerome K. Jerome
I will not jump with common spirits. -William Shakespeare
If you start getting nervous about getting hurt, you will be…If you are worrying about the danger, its time to give up. -Jason Weaver (jockey)
The bucking started from the back door of hell on a hot day, and came out on the run. -Charlie Siringo
He’s the kind of horse with a far-away look. He’ll sure take a man through some awful places and sometimes only one comes out. -WS James
Never trust a cowhand that doesn’t know how to properly tie a horse. -A Cowboy Truth
For horses can educate through first hand, subjective, personal experiences, unlike human tutors, teacher and professors can ever do. Horses can build character, not merely urge on to improve on it. Horses forge the mind, the character, the emotions, and inner lives of humans. People can talk to one another about all these things and remain distant and lonesome. In partenernship with a horse, one is seldom lacking for thought, emotion and inspirtation. One is always attended by a great companion. -Charles de Kunffy
A cowboy is a man with guts and a horse. -Will James
A typical cowboy was wolf wild and free as the wind. -Charlie Cowboy
I took to the life of a cowboy like a horse takes to oats. -Clinton McCay
If your horse doesn’t care, you shouldn’t either. -Lindsay Lee
I will not change my horse for any that treads on four pasterns. -William Shakespeare
A horseman should know neither fear, nor anger. -James Rarey
…tireless, swift as the flowing wind. Shadowfax they called him. By day his coat glistens like silver; and by night it is like a shade, and he passes unseen. Light is his footfall! -J.R.R. Tolkien
Sometimes you have to put your foot down to get a leg up. -Dave Weinbaum
Worry is like a rockin horse. Its something to do that don’t get you nowhere. -Unknow
May your horse never stumble,
May your spurs never rust,
May your guts never grumble,
May your cinch never bust!
May your boots never pinch,
Your crops never fail,
While you eat lots of beans,
And stay out of jail!
-Unknown
…Let me be easy on the man that is down.
Let me be square and generous with all.
I’m careless sometimes, Lord, when I’m in town
But let them never say I’m mean or small.
Make me as big and as open as the plains.
As honest as the wind blows behind the rains.
Free as the hawk that circles down the breeze.
I thank you Lord that I am placed so well.
That you made my freedom so complete.
That I am no slave to whistle, clock, or bell
Nor weak-eyed prisoner of wall and street.
Just let me live my life as I’ve begun
And give me work that is open to the sky.
Make me a partener of the wind and sun
And I won’t ask for a life that’s soft and high.
…Just keep an eye on all that’s done and said…
and guide me on the long dim trail ahead.
-Unknown (A Cowboy’s Prayer)
We kept him until he died…and sat with him during the long last minutes when a horse comes closest to seeming human. -C.J.J. Mullen
I have seen soldiers panic at the first sight of battle; and a squire pulling arrows from his body to fight and save his dying horse. Nobility is not a birthright, but is defined by one’s actions. -Kevin Costner
A horse may stumble though he have four legs. -English Proverb
Better ride on an ass that carries me, than on a horse that throws me. -English Proverb
You think you lost your horse? Who knows, he may bring a whole herd back to you someday. -Chinese Proverb
The ass of a King is still but an ass. -German Proverb
One cannot shoe a running horse. -Dutch Proverb
The man who does not love a horse, cannot love a woman. -Spanish Proverb
Trouble rides a fast horse. -Italian Proverb
A man, a horse, and a dog never get weary of each other’s company. -Anonymous
The most beautiful, the most spirited and the most inspiring creature ever to print foot on the grasses of America. -J. Frank Dobie (on the Mustang)
There ain’t nothing like the feeling
That you get deep down inside
When its early in the morning
And you’re signed on to ride.
-Waddie
I never play horse shoes cause Mother taught us not to throw our clothes around. -Mr. Ed
Never thank yourself, always thank the horses for the happiness and joy we experience through them. -Hans H.E. Isenbart
If I had a horse, I’d ride off into the sunset, where dreams and shadows lie. To a life where pain and sorrow don’t exist, and to where hopes and dreams become reality. -Lindsay Turcotte
The glory of his snorting is terrible. He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength…He swallows the ground with storm and rage…He smells the battle afar off. -Job 39:20-21, 24-25
The day my final race is run
And win or lose, the sinking sun
Tells me its time to quite the track
And gracefully hang up my tack,
I’ll thank the Lord the life I’ve led
Was always near a Thoroughbred.
I’ve had my share of falls and knocks
Pursuing the elusive fox.
I’ve heard the stirring cry of hounds
From Melton to the Sussex Downs.
Each spring I ride a hundred miles
(My tail bright red, my face all smile).
And I have seen the thrilling pace
Of many a cutthroat steeplechase
And watched with breath and mind suspended
Until a classic race has ended.
For those high days can end in pain,
Or in a bottle of champaigne.
So if the downward course is steep
Where smoke and flames and devils leap
I’ll hope I’m on a hellish steed
Running his heart out with no need
For voice or spurs or flailing whip
To guarantee he gets the trip.
But if about the 16th pole
God should hjave mercy on my soul,
I hope he’ll raise me to the clouds
Above the grandstand and the crowds
And there I’ll take my ease and wait
Behind the pearly starting gate.
And long before I break God’s bread
Or buy a halo for my head
Or sink into a starry bed
Or say the prayer I should have said
Before the donuts, rolls, or coffees,
I’ll find the secretary’s office.
In my first interview, of course,
I’ll ask St. Peter for a horse.
He’ll lead me down the heavenly sheds
Past miles and miles of thoroughbreds
And say “Since you’ve escaped Old Nick…
They’re on the house, just take your pick.”
So when old Gabriel’s golden horn
Echoes from cloud to cloud each morn
And “It’s post time” rings out clear
I will be ready with my gear;
My horse and I will not be late
(Though I’ll be slightly overweight).
Then free from every mortal sin
(Including Butazolidin!)
We’ll gallop through celestial fields
Where neither mist nor mud conceals
The graceful movements of the horse,
The wide and green and endless course.
Though some may think and I’ll agree
That only God can make a tree,
Before God thought of trees, its said,
His mind was on the Thoroughbred.
-Paul Melion
Visions of horses…make the moment brighter, inspire respect, and make the heart beat faster. -Founders of the Sunshine Horse Lovers Club
Brahma was excessively sparing with earth, water, and fire. The new creature was not given either horns or claws, and his teeth were only meant for chewing, not for biting. The prudent care with which fire was used made him a necessity in war without making him war like. This animal was the horse. -Rabindranath Tagore
Sometimes he trots, as if he told the steps with gentle majesty and pride. Anon, he rears upright, curvets and leaps, as who should say ‘Lo, thus my strength is tried.’ -William Shakespeare
There is a touch of divinity even in brutes, and a special halo about a horse, that should forever exempt it from indignities. As for those majestic, magisterial truck-horses of the docks, I would as soon think of striking a judge on the bench, as to lay violent hands upon their holy hides. -Herman Melville
Just two lines of butts
big, warm butts
Butts that make good seats on cold days
Butts that wiggle
Back
And
Forth
in their stalls.
Butts full of energy waiting to be let go
Butts scarred and distinguished by cuts and bites
but adorned by tails of the finest hair He could create.
Butts that give us a reason to work and sweat
Butts that have shivered in the cold
and sweat in the sun
Butts that have seen
Children crying
and old friends laughing
Butts that have felt
the sting of a harsh, quick hand
and the adoration in a kiss.
Butts that leave an impression on your heart
too deep to be wiped away
Just two lines of butts.
-Alexandra Levi
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the night jars flying with the ricks, and the horses flashing into the dark. -Dylan Thomas
On the back of a horse you will find Paradise on earth. -Stella A Walker
Mares, she said, had no been altered, in them the blood flowed freely, their life cycles had not been tampered with, their natures were complete their own. -John Hawkes
The rhythm of the ride carried them on and on, and she knew that the horse was as eager as she, as much in love with the speed and air and freedom. -Georgess McHargue
The concrete act of being outside on my horse, the gritty actuality of dust and dirt and wind and sun, somehow stir the less shaped and more inexplicable interior with in me. -Mary D. Midkiff
As far as the male was concerned, the horse was part of a masculine elitism and entertainment, but in the world of the feminine he was sought out for his own sake and for the pleasure and the lift of imagination he gave, particularly to young girls, so that by the time they were adolescent and about to move on into life, they had reached that new moment of birth into themselves helped by schooling and graduating from ponies up to horses. -Sir Laurens van der Post
Horses constantly test the boundaries of acceptance… -Mary D. Midkiff
The horse shows us how to be complete. -Mary D. Midkiff
But (he) understood the horse as a force that could sweep a soul to the top of the world. -Mary D. Midkiff
A horse’s breath is a mixture of warm apples and chicken soup. Everything to do with horses, their food tack, bedding, smells very good. Everything feels good, the leather, a silky handful of oats, the cool metal of a bit, and the smoothed licked edge of the manger. -Monica Dickens
Astride a horse, we stop thinking about our too-big hips or our too-small breasts – all those real and imagined flaws we women are so good at finding in ourselves. -Mary D. Midkiff
No matter how close to the city it lies, we are soothed by the timeless rhythm of hooves falling on bare earth. -Mary D. Midkiff
Perhaps it is the unrecognized expectation of holding for in instant what primordial sensations can be born again in the free strength of flashing flanks, and driving hooves beating a challenge against the ground. -Beryl Markham
Horses are natively sensual beings. They don’t think about how to be sexy or how to feel good about themselves physically: they don’t depend on perfume and diamonds to be magnetic. They simply live fully in their bodies and in their surroundings. -Mary D. Midkiff
There was a rhythm to the canter. Up, forward, down. It soon became pleasant. The broad warm rump felt good beneath her. The pounding was diminished, cushioned by the horse’s muscles and the springiness of his hindquarter joints…The ridden horse was a marvel, diminishing space. -Morgan Llewelyn
He (the white horse) moved like a dancer, which is not surprising: a horse is a beautiful animal, but it is perhaps most remarkable because it moves as if it always hears music. -Mark Helprin
He arrived as equus some two million years ago, as splendid an animal as the ages were to produce. -James A. Michener
…they move in herds, assemble for the pleasure of being together, and become quite attached to each other. -Buffon
A strange stillness dwells in the eye of the horse, a composure that appears to regard the world from a measured distance…It is a gaze from the depths of a dream… -Hans-Heinrich Isenbart
Horses of anger trampling, horses of anger…Was it they, was it they? Or was it cold wind in the leaves of the shadow tree that made such grievous music? -Stephen Vincent Benet
…this pageant of proud horses, gray and bay, sorrel and black…with blazing eyes and glistening flanks, recalled a procession of gladiators marching to some circus, hidden from view, but near at hand… -Peter Shiraeff
Even what Gros and Rubens conjured up to depict the furies was nothing compared to these stallions. -Eugene Delacroix
…through his mane and tail the high wind sings, Fanning the hairs, who wav like feather’d wings. -William Shakespeare
…all shining and beautiful and gentle of herself, she seemed a darling life upon that savage soil not worthy of her gracious pasterns: the strutting tail flowed down even to the ground, and the mane was shed by the loving nurture of her mother Nature. -Charles M. Doughty
Her bright coat shone in the sunlight, and little shivers and wrinkles passed up and down its satin because of the flies. Then for a moment she stood still… -John Galsworthy
Allow them not to gallop in swirling floods. But let them graze in glades by brimming streams. -Virgil
The stomachs of mares are treasure chests bulging with gold. -Emir Abd-el-Kader
There was life in that silver shroud. Through its beautify transparency, a pair of black, shiny hoofs tore… -Carl Raswan
…there was a faint sound of neighing of steeds…no louder than the hum of the bee or the summer-fly in the drowsy ear of him who lies at noontide in the shade. -Washington Irving
Before the gods that made the gods
Had seen their sunrise pass,
The White Horse of the White Horse Vale
Was cut out of the grass.
-G.K. Chesterton
He dipped his head
And snorted at us. And then he had to bolt.
We heard the miniature thunder where he fled,
And we saw him, or thought we saw him, dim and gray,
Like a shadow…
-Robert Frost
A woman who wants to explore the territory of commitment and claim it for her own may find no better instructor than a horse. -Mary D. Midkiff
For the day’s work was done and in the peace of the evening there seemed to be a quiet understanding between the girl and her horse, who watched her with a dreamy and trustful gaze. -Marjorie Stace
Horses give us a magnificent canvas on which to capture unworldly beauty. -Mary D. Midkiff
The mare with a flowing mane which was never broke to any servile toil and labour, composed an eighth species of women…A woman of this species is a very pretty thing for a stranger to look upon, but very detrimental to the owner… -Simonides of Ceos
They give us a sense of danger that produces at least a momentary thrill and also rewards us with a lingering sense of our own strength as we ride our way out of peril. -Mary D. Midkiff
And then he was there – eyes rolling, nostrils flaring and snorting, his entire body puffed up in furry and independence and manliness, a dragon of a horse who poured smoke from his nose and breathed steam through his skin. Never had I been so close to anything so large, so powerful, so full of energy, so dangerous. He was terrifying and life threatening and magnificent, all at the same time, and I felt I had crossed some invisible border into a world beyond myself merely by being in his presence. -Mary D. Midkiff
…he fell a Trotting, and Winsing, and Yerking, and Calcitrating alias kicking, and curveting and bounding, and Springing and Galloping full drive, as if the Devil had come for him in propia persona. -Francois Rabelais
I heard a sudden harmony of hooves…The silver runaways of Neptune’s car Racing, spray curled, like waves before the wind… -Roy Cambell
For the dominant quality of Arab blood is its eternal, its immortal persistence... It has triumphed over everything mundane - thousands of years, hap and circumstances, time and tide, incredible hardships and immemorial adversities, misuse, and abuse, the exigencies of mankind's daily life and the flame and blood of the battlefield - unconquerable, indestructible and victorious. -John L. Hervey
If you have seen nothing but the beauty of their markings and limbs, their true beauty is hidden from you. -Al Mutannabi
A prince is never surrounded by as much majesty on his throne as he is on a beautiful horse. -William Cavendish
Nature, when she made the Arab, made no mistake. -Homer Davenport
The horse shall be for man a source of happiness and wealth; its back shall be a seat of honor and its belly riches, and every grain of barley given it... shall be entered in the register of good works. -Mohammed
When you are on a great horse, you have the best seat you will ever have. -Winston Churchill
A good rider on a good horse is as much above himself and others as the world can make him. -Lord Herbert
Man does not rightly know the way to the heavenly world, but the horse does rightly know it. -Satapatha Brahmana XIII
And as I was riding along, my heart resounded in the lawn-dampened steps, resounded in the snorting and champing on the bit by my grey, and a blissful happiness lit up my heart and I knew: If I now dropped out of the world, I would fall into heaven. -Baron Von Munchhausen
As a horse runs, think of it as a game of tag with the wind. -Tre Tuberville
A fine little smooth horse colt, Should move a man as much as doth a son. -Thomas Kyd
We have been companions now for centuries. I rode you in the high festival to the Parthenon and to the edges of the unknown world under the Shadow of the Eagles. Together we re-took the Holy Places, endured the horrors of the crossing to Crimea. You took me to adventure and to love. We two have shared great joy and great sorrow. And now I stand at the gate of the paddock watching you run in an ecstasy of freedom, knowing you will return to stand quietly, loyally beside me. -Pam Brown
I've spent most of my life riding horses. The rest I've just wasted. -Anonymous
We gaze upon their quiet beauty, their natural elegance, and we are captivated. They see us softly, in gentle light...rewarding human companionship with strength, grace and intelligence. As they run through arenas and open fields, past mountains and seas, moving like the wind toward heaven, we travel with them, if only in our hearts. -Unknown
Far back, far back in our dark soul the horse prances… The horse, the horse! The symbol of surging potency and power of movement, of action… -D.H. Lawrence
The rigid curved neck, such as ancient sculptors modeled…the interplay of muscle…in each of his poses he was…the composite of all the equestrian statues of history. -Felix Salten
By reason of his elegance, he resembles an image painted in a palace, though he is as majestic as the palace itself. -Emir Abd-el-Kader
He is swift and strong among the swift ones, but it is that flowing mane and tail that mark him chiefly from afar. -Ernest Thompson Seton
And God took a handful of southerly wind, blew his breath over it and created the horse. -Bedouin Legend
Blue are the skies of opening day; The bordering turf is green with May; The sunshine’s golden gleam is thrown On sorrel, chestnut, bay and roan… -Oliver Wendell Holmes
Around and around he galloped, and sometimes he jumped forward and landed on stiff legs…quivering…ears forward, eyes rolling so that the whites showed, pretending to be afraid. -John Steinbeck
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet; That was all! -Henry W. Longfellow
My early days were spent on the wooden, or rocking variety of mount. Armchairs, bedsteads, all served my apprenticeship- in fact, my parents' furniture still bears the mark of my whip and improvised spurs. -Alan Oliver
My Favorite Web sites
Equisearch
Horse City
Clip Clop
My Horse
