A decade with Caroline!

Today June 21 marks ten years to the day since I adopted Caroline in 2014.

On that day, my late husband Greg and I, together, adopted Caroline and her older companion horse Henry together.

Now my Greg, and Caroline’s Henry, are both gone. But Caroline and I still have each other — along with her second companion Charlie — and we have enriched each others’ lives in profound ways.

Caroline and Henry were slowly starving to death, in the spring of 2014, after their previous humans moved away and left the two horses to fend for themselves on a small lot in an impoverished North Carolina community. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) rescued them in the nick of time. Greg and I as a couple, and then I on my own, provided these horses the care they needed to survive and thrive. We, and then I, gave the horses freedom to spend their days roaming and grazing, as horses naturally evolved to do.

Caroline has given me many gifts in return.

I’ve always loved the adventure of travel and immersion in other human languages and cultures. Caroline, first with Henry and then with Charlie, has offered me a variant of that type of adventure right at home: an immersion in the rich repertoire of vocalizations, ear positions, tail movements, postures, and more that comprise the language of her species.

Caroline has also afforded me the opportunity for regular vigorous outdoor exercise, and thereby helped me to build my own strength. I’ve never ridden her or her companions, and I never will — but the daily routine of filling hay feeders and mucking stalls beats any gym workout.

Caroline and her gelding companions have also helped me to connect with nature. The horses’ quiet strength seems to offer security to vulnerable wild animals, allowing me to enjoy daily encounters around their pasture and barn with small mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Then there is the sight of her running free with her powerful Thoroughbred companions, which never fails to fill me with a primal sense of joy.

Caroline is roughly age 17 now, and has enjoyed robust good health for the entire time she has been with me — so I hope that she and I will continue to grace each others’ lives for at least a decade or two more!