Howdy,

Welcome to our virtual ranch!

Here in Cantertales, you will find lifetimes of journeying with horses. Tales, tidbits, and territory devoted to the lives and well-being of this gentle yet wild beast.

Some people are born loving horses. Some people are afraid of horses. Some people don’t know horses. Some people find mystery in horses. In Cantertales you’ll find good company. Here is a site set on the love of horses.  Tales of tails and tales of trails will come to tell each week.  Life on the ranch invites visitors, weather, seasons, news and views all together… and all are welcome all the time.

Pony up. Today meet Kate.

“Some people are born loving horses”

I used to gaze out the car windows when I was a kid, superimposing over the passing Midwest roadsides a big, dark, beautiful horse that galloped alongside our Opal.

I collected plastic horses that held much more affection in my girl’s heart than Barbie & Co.I read every horse book I could get my hands on. Marguerite Henry was and is a favorite author. 

Misty, Stormy, Mustang Wild Spirit of the West.

When I was 11, a miracle - my parents bought me a short, obese, white horse named Frosty. Then there was Cornflakes, a young palomino mare. We rode and jumped a little and went to dinky horse shows. I sold Cornflakes when I went away to college, an experience so traumatic I have completely blocked it from my memory.  My second life with horses began when Thomas and I moved to a mountain property in Kern County, a few hours from Los Angeles but a whole different world. We live in Cowboy Country. Lots of people here have horses.

We decided it was time for our horse.  A Mustang who I adopted/rescued and named Jackson.  It has been a wild ride to our present.  Nowadays we have four rescued mustangs and a mule; five dogs and some cats round out the population. We have raised chickens. We used to have a flock, then we just had Flick… but that’s another story…

Now I spend my time with horses, and talking to horse people: trainers, breeders, riders, and rescuers… and my absolute favorite thing is when we catch up with our horse friends and go for a ride up the forest trails.

Saddle up and ride with us here at Cantertales! We’ll visit Chincoteague ponies, Rocky Mountain horses, endurance-racing Arabians, mule babies, champion Quarter Horses, cowboys, cowgirls and cow-smart horses with jobs, and especially America’s “living legends”, the Mustangs.

Future articles will include and be featured in The Round Pen: Training, learning and life lessons - as adopted mustangs Jackson, Gus and Captain Call (and they are not all) go from WILD to MILD; Feral or Foiled: Investigations into the issues facing horses in America and beyond; Wild Horse Heroes: Profiles of the Brave, Obsessed, and Big-Hearted;  And Hoofprints: Horses and the folks who love them.  This is just the beginning.  On a horse we can go anywhere.  Join us.  Let us know what you think.  Tell us a story of your own.  Giddyup!