SEEING RED

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  I met Red Skelton backstage at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville as he came off the stage from doing a special performance there. I ha...

NEON

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This is Neon. About 20 years ago in Santa Fe, NM, Neon, seven, belonged to actor Val Kilmer. V al's trainer was a short little woman who...

ON SPRING: A poem about long-lasting love

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I wrote this poem when I was about 17, I think.  Since my parents were in their early 40s when they had me, they were older than most of the...

"I'M HERE TO GET MY CRACK DONE!", she said.

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Back in the 1980's, Dolly Parton did occasionally go without a wig, believe it or not. She and I had the same Nashville hair stylist, w...

No Bucks, No Buckskin: Why I Never Rode with Gene Hackman

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  In the 1990s, we were living in Tesuque, New Mexico, a few miles from Santa Fe and not far from the famed hide-away resort, Rancho Encanta...

The Audition

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I was thinking about people who have inspired me, and  was reminded of this experience.   There was a boy who was attending a high school...

The Best Last Words

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My 94 year old father's greatest gift to me was his last two words.  He hadn't spoken at all in weeks.  He lay still in his retir...

Rattlesnakes and Bonnets: My First Job

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When I was a little girl growing up on our ranch in NM, I had a job.  Most kids have jobs, but my job was a little different from the kinds ...

Slaughtering Horses Makes No Cents

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If horse slaughter is ever restarted in the US, it will hurt the equine industry more than people can  imagine.   What will occu...

There's No Scarier Sound Than An Ambulance Siren When It's You In The Ambulance

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July 3, 2011 / 10:45 PM (MST) Seven years ago right now, I was lying in the Durango, CO emergency room with a broken jaw, broken chi...

How To [Not] Tame A Wild Mustang

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[ Published by Horse Network Magazine ] When we had a ranch near Santa Fe, NM, we got a call one cold winter night from the US Fore...

The Story of Dom and Keebler

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There are examples throughout nature of animals having deep, complex emotions and attachments that we seldom acknowledge.  We buy and sel...

Age Ode

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I used to write good poetry But it is good no more. To make a line rhyme in time Is just too big a chore. I used to write of love ...

An Essay on Hunting

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I have been opposed to hunting all my life. Although I grew up on a New Mexico farm and ranch where animals were killed regularly and for...

The Up Side of Downs

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by Elaine Nash I grew up with an aunt who had Downs Syndrome. When I was a girl, I found her annoying and an embarrassment because she w...

The Earliest Americans Were Horses

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America's wild h orses face a perception problem.  They are the victims of much misinformation, historical inaccuracy, and social am...