Flying Changes

There is a time to move on, a time to let go . . . and a time to fly. “Sara Gruen writes with passionate precision about horses and their humans and the healing power of love.”—Maryanne Stahl, author of Forgive the Moon Anxiety rules Annemarie Zimmer’s days—the fear that her relationship with the man she loves is growing stagnant; the fear that equestrian daughter Eva’s dreams of Olympic glory will carry her far away from her mother . . . and into harm’s way. For five months, Annemarie has struggled to make peace with her past. But if she cannot let go, the personal battles she has won and the heights she has achieved will have all been for naught. It is a time of change at Maple Brook Horse Farm, when loves must be confronted head-on and fears must be saddled and broken. But it is an unanticipated tragedy that will most drastically alter the fragile world of one remarkable family—even as it flings open gates that have long confined them, enabling them all to finally ride headlong and free.

Other creatures of the Earth are asking to be our spiritual teachers, says Heyward, and learning from them is a source of hope for the world. Reflecting on the seven spiritual lessons taught to her by horses, Heyward explores: 1) passion as real presence; 2) otherness as remembering what we aren't; 3) fear as shrinking spirituality; 4) balance as sitting deep and well; 5) beauty as reflecting who we are; 6) patience as taking time; and 7) whimsy as being light as a feather. Dedicated to the staff, students, volunteers, and horses at Heyward's farm--Free Rein Center for Therapeutic Riding and Education in Brevard, North Carolina--Flying Changes includes 15 black and white photographs of horses and a selected bibliography.

As a world-class equestrian and Olympic contender, Annemarie Zimmer lived for the thrill of flight atop a strong, graceful animal. Then, at eighteen, a tragic accident destroyed her riding career and Harry, the beautiful horse she cherished. Now, twenty years later, Annemarie is coming home to her dying father's New Hampshire horse farm. Jobless and abandoned, she is bringing her troubled teenage daughter to this place of pain and memory, where ghosts of an unresolved youth still haunt the fields and stables—and where hope lives in the eyes of the handsome, gentle veterinarian Annemarie loved as a girl . . . and in the seductive allure of a trainer with a magic touch. But everything will change yet again with one glimpse of a white striped gelding startlingly similar to the one Annemarie lost in another lifetime. And an obsession is born that could shatter her fragile world.

A guide to living and leading through the wisdom of nature, indigenous knowledge, neuroscience, and an uncommon teacher. Underneath the challenges of our modern age, we find a common cause of disconnection—from each other, the earth, and lives of purpose and meaning. How do we turn it around? In Flying Lead Change, Kelly Wendorf offers a guide for a new approach to leading and living, grounded in evidence-based principles of neuroscience and inspired by two profound sources of ancient wisdom: Original Peoples and Equus (the horse). Wendorf presents the wisdom of a 56-million-year-old system—the horse herd—that overcame threats we now face, such as climate change and mass extinction. Here, she shares the five pillars of their success: safety, peace, connection, joy, and freedom. She reveals how true leaders in both human and equine society use these principles to benefit the whole—a model of servant leadership based on presence and care, not dominance, force, exploitation, or coercion. In horsemanship, a “flying lead change” allows a running horse to respond with breathtaking grace to changing conditions. “Collectively, we need a similar physics-defying maneuver,” Wendorf writes. “This book is for the called—thought leaders, visionaries, parents, creatives, and all those who sense we are being asked to participate in humanity’s ‘flying change’ through the way we live, love, and lead.”

Inspired by the Henry Taylor poem of the same name, Flying Change is the true story of a man changing strides and leaving the comforts and security of middle-age life to reenter the hazardous and highly competitive world of steeplechasing. After a youthful career begun under the tutelage of his father, legendary steeplechase jockey A. P. "Paddy" Smithwick, he gave up riding to become a newspaper editor, a Chesapeake Bay waterman, a teacher of English and literature, and a father. But the one-time jockey could not leave the sport he so loved. At forty-six, he pushed himself back into shape for competitive racing and set about trying to find a horse to ride in the most challenging of timber races, the Maryland Hunt Cup. From the rolling hills of Maryland horse country, Smithwick issues a movingly written call to those of us trapped in increasingly sedentary, digital lives to get up and go outdoors and let the senses play, to feel a cold rain on your shoulders and sit in front of a warm fire, to smell hay and grass and live in the beauty of spring dawns and brilliant autumn sunsets.

Confronted by omnipresent threats of job loss and change, even the brightest among us are anxious. Packed with practical advice and inspiring stories, "Flying Without a Net" explains how to draw strength from vulnerability.

Seventeen-year-old Denny and her family face hard times when her father is injured on the rodeo circuit.

Horses allow ordinary people to do extraordinary things, and this extraordinary book shows you how. Now revised and updated, the Complete Horse Riding Manual covers dressage, show jumping, and cross-country riding, detailing everything you need to know to compete in these events, whether you are a beginner or more experienced rider. Complete Horse Riding Manual is brimming with advice on finding the best horse for you, training a young horse, forming the ultimate horse-and-rider team, boosting and maintaining your own physical fitness and suppleness, and building the fitness and stamina of your horse.