July | 2015 | Ann Stebner Steele

There are three places I feel most at home in my own skin: in the Red Desert, in the Wind River Mountains, and on the back of a horse (anywhere). I inherited my love of horses from my aunt and uncle and from my good friend, Melissa, who taught me to ride. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that I was born with horses in my blood and that these people have nurtured that initial attraction into full-blown passion.

I first met Tucker, my palomino gelding, when he was three years old and I was a newly-minted thirteen. This year, I turned thirty and realized that my “colt” is older than the incoming college-freshman I work with. Tucker knew me before I learned to drive, lived alone, met my husband, wrote my first essay, or shot my first antelope. Suffice it to say, he has been my friend for a long time.

When I swing my leg over his back and settle my weight lightly against the bars of the stirrups, I feel the world shift. Though I actually think there is often truth at the bottom of cliches, I do not feel “the world lift from my shoulders.” Instead, I feel my own weight settle into the the earth, feel my own body as part of the world.

Everything around me takes on a new, sharp, rich focus. I breathe in the smell of mud and dirt and fresh-cut hay and clear, wild water and the warmth of Tucker’s large body, and I know, deep in my gut, who I am and the nature of my place in this world. The colors of the landscape become more saturated, each leaf, blade of grass, and fence post more vivid. I know that I am alive, am tied to each moment through the sound of Tucker’s hooves clattering across gravel roads and smooth-pebbled streams, whispering through tall grass, ticking through sage brush. His steady, four-beat gait sets my whole body into rhythm, rocking me from the balls of my feet in the stirrups up through my hips to my shoulders and head and tying me back to earth through the clean, long lines of his legs. No matter if I am angry or stressed or overly excited by events at work or the traffic on the way to the barn, calm settles into my as I settle into my saddle.

Because life viewed from horse-back balances me, I want to share this perspective with you through the following photos.