Birds of a Feather

The Need for Speed

***Sample audio (scroll down for full audio)***

“Never judge a journey by the distance...” ~Jacqueline Winspear, Birds of a Feather

Dear Reader,

I was going to pull a reading from my other book, Riding By Torchlight, but this reading from Each Wind That Blows kept demanding to be included. It wasn’t so much that I picked it, as it picked us. So, I’ll be back at my desk next week, but in the meantime, hope you get a kick out of this wild ride, like I did at the time and in remembering it in writing.

Photo credit: Billy Dodson, www.savannaimages.com

Birds of a Feather

We come out of the valley at a walk to find a horseman’s dream of a plain stretch out before us. Flat, open, grass clipped short by hungry teeth. It’s on our way and we mean to cross it. If I know Tristan at all by now, it will be at speed.

I look ahead to where we are headed, scouting our route. A small herd of giraffe are passing in regal statehood off to our right, away from us, but ahead the land is sprinkled with zebra, tommies and the occasional impala. Tristan pauses and waits for everyone to gather up, then speaks the by now increasingly familiar words: “Shall we have a little trot then, maybe a gentle canter? We do have a lot of ground to cover before lunch.”