My horse's voice

Long before I became a horseman all horses sounded basically the same to me. Oh there was a distinctive voice here and there but they all sounded pretty much the same.

A few years ago at a huge horse show with hundreds of horses on hundreds of acres I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could tell my horse's voice. From hundreds of yards away in a barn with 50 or 60 horses in it I could hear my horse.

We had an issue a few days ago with a loose horse. I had turned a handful of horses out and I was cleaning stalls and I heard L calling out in her "hey! hey! we have a situation here!" voice. That's one of those alpha horse things. It was odd so I wandered on out to have a look just in time to see a loose horse go tearing by.

We got a hold of the loose horse after a while and it was funny L stopped screaming after she saw me come out of the barn. She's a smart girl.

I've heard people say horses aren't very expressive animals. Being prey animals they don't have a lot to say - they reveal themselves when they make noise and they know not to do that. It really isn't like it is in the movies. Horses don't scream, for example, when they fall down.

And I've heard people say they're not very expressive because their faces are so bony. Well. None of that is true. Horses are *very* expressive animals. You just have to know how to listen to a horse is all.

Summer is over. How sad. Fall isn't so bad. Harvest time is special in New England. We have apples and squash this time of year and comfort food season will be here soon. Wait until you see my pot roast recipe!

Here's my farewell to summer. Now *this* is a salad. Perfect with a bottle of your favorite chianti. Or even a pinot noir. But really, it doesn't get much better than this:

That, by the way, is a serving platter. It's not a dinner plate.

Salami and French bread does add a little something!