Visiting Pete

One of my five favorite people.

I thought I would introduce Mr. Pete today… He is a Canadian, with warm blood. Pete, sometimes known as PPP, (Perfect Prince Pete,) is very very tall. He is 16.3 hands high. He is not some little pony. He is a rather large guy. While I on the other hand stand around 5’1 ” and a halfish, so almost 5’2 and a half in riding boots. We are a bit of an odd couple. I went to visit him for the first time in a while. Things took time to organize and get moving, post vaccination. And before that, we weren’t spending much time together because about 3 years ago now, I fell cuz I was being a dope. I broke my pelvis in 2 places. It has taken time to really repair enough to get back up. What needs to be understood, is this horse is an extreme literalist. He does whatever you ask him to quite exactly. You tell him to trot he will trot. If you don’t tell him to turn, he will trot straight into the wall of the indoor almost like he expects to pass right through. I asked him to do something. I asked him to do something I probably shouldn’t have at that moment. I made a decision. My first truly bad one in decades around horses over the course of my life. I got hurt. That is on me. This horse is perfect. He has the most sweet wonderful and kind disposition and a slow goofy sense of humor. He was not responsible for my decision. I was. It doesn’t reflect on him at all. He is perfect, he is well trained, and super well behaved and quite calm truly for a prey animal. He is a good horse. I failed him, and I failed myself. He failed nothing and no one.So between covid and a broken pelvis, he has been out to pasture a while. But I am now able to start getting back to him. Which is wonderful since he is one of my favoritest people on planet earth. On Wednesday, I went back to the barn for the first time in far too long to get organized to return to my sport. While I was there, I decided to visit my buddy. The same buddy, who started to scream when he couldn’t lift me up off the ground with his nose. His screaming is what brought help. That help is how I got to a hospital and got the care I needed. I only feel horrible that I traumatized him so badly by being unable to stand up.

I took him out of his stall, and I brushed him out. it was so nice to spend some bonding time with him. I think we both needed it. I sang his favorite song for him, and we hugged and cuddled. He had an apple and several butter scotch candies. I know I know, not good for his teeth but I was trying to make up a bit for my long absence and total failure of him, first due to injury and then due to being an asthma sufferer during covid. I think I am forgiven.

It was tons of fun to see him. While I was brushing him, someone else at the barn took a look at us together me jumping up and down trying to reach the top of his back to brush it. Him loving every second of the attention. She offered me a stool to stand on. Yep, that is how short I am. people offer me stools so I can properly brush my horse. This was not the first time someone commented on the size difference and wondered what I was doing with a horse far too big for me.

I am aware, he is too large for me. Yes, I know we look ridiculous together in the ring. But we are devoted to each other. We love each other. We have a bond. I don’t know if I would ride anymore if he couldn’t be part of that. This is as much about who he is as a person as it is about my love for this amazingly wonderful sport. It would be hard for me do this with a different horse. And to lose riding would be to lose a really big piece of myself. I was forced by a virus to give it up for a time, and by injury for a time. But I can’t help always coming back to it as soon as I am able.

I look forward to long rides on Pete, and rebuilding what a very serious injury took from me. An injury that I did to myself.

Right now, Pete, is boarded not far from here up the road. I hope to eventually build him a barn right here on the property. But until I do, he can stay right where he is. He is happy there. He is treated well. And I get to visit him regularly.

Choices have consequences. The rider makes the choices. The horse does as asked. That is how the partnership works. He carried out his end of the arrangement to perfection. I know he always will. I know I can count on him. Now it is time to show him, I will never fail him again. So, we start over hoping to be successful at having fun together like we used to before I had a momentary brain fart and destroyed everything.

I am thinking of taking up vaulting and dumping hunt seat for dressage something I did a bit of before but was not serious about as I used to be a jumper as a kid… Neither Pete nor I are kids anymore. It is time to get more technical and detailed and to learn to dance more seriously with each other. Let the kids jump. I am getting old.

I am just really grateful that he is still there for me to come back to.
Thanx for reading
Amanda of Wildflower Farm

About wildflowerfarm

Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.

My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.

Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.

Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.

Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.

We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.

We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.

This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.

We welcome you on this journey with us.

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Visiting Pete

Visiting Pete

About wildflowerfarm

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