Calling Animals

Adam naming the animals. Etching credits: Wellcome. (cc 4.0) In the 1990s, many of the equestrians I encountered believed that ani­mals were incapable of thought and emotion. “It’s all instinct,” one of my trainers told me whenever I brought up anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Some of the local ranchers insisted that, unlike dogs, horses weren’t smart enough to recognize their own names.

Photo credits: Kevin Kunkel, New Mexico Intern, Bureau of Land Management. (cc 2.0) Several years ago, I adopted three young mares from a local horse rescue. Leyla, a brown-and-white paint with striking blue eyes, walked right up to me the day we met, while Brandi, a chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail, watched from a safe distance. Feisty little Savan­nah — a delicate, spirited buckskin — also kept her distance, though her gaze seemed more suspicious than shy.

Learning to share power is the challenge of the twenty-first century. Men and women of diverse educational and economic back­grounds can access information and resources that were unavailable to them a mere decade ago. Today, anyone with a great idea can raise money online, order supplies delivered to the door, and conceive a multi-million-dollar corporation in the corner of a basement or garage.