The Red Pony Retreat

Connecting to The Red Pony

 

We had a goal:

Connect to horses--their smell, feel, look, habits, lives.  

We wanted to know them physically 

before we read about them on the page. 

On the way out to Sierraville, 

we talked about our pets, 
the animals we love or have loved.

We talked about John Steinbeck, 
a man who won the Nobel Prize for literature, 
who wrote The Red Pony while living with his dying mother, 
and about how much of this book is childhood memory.

Rubicon and Foxy were our first "red ponies" of the retreat. They live in Sierraville with Jennifer Blide who spent her afternoon helping us connect to them. 

We learned to whisper to them, respect them, clean them, love them, try to keep them inside the fences, 

let them sense our body's talk.  

Here we are...

Scooping poop

Cleaning stalls

Meeting Rubicon--

we learned to let horses sniff us before we reach out to pet them.

Hauling poop and learning how to handle the gates!

Holding up a horse's leg (it's harder than we thought)

Being reminded to stand in a safe position matters, too!
(Cody and Logan both moved seconds after the photos were taken!)

After chores, we got to love the horses up--privately--by 

leading them on both short and long ropes. 

Later, as you wrote about the afternoon, you all described this intimate time as your best moments of the day.

Foxy liked getting VERY close to Cody.

 Rubicon and Jacob having a conversation.

Eleanore felt the connection to Rubicon: when she exhaled, he slowed; when she stood strong and tall, he ran. 

You can see Jennifer
showing us how to talk to horses with our energy.

He's a natural...and still only eleven!

I bet one day he'll own one.

After a good hour and a half with the horses, it was time to ride...the rope swing. 

We all loved it, especially the birthday boy.

And then...writing time on the ranch...

Everyone found a comfortable place and wrote about one moment he/she wouldn't forget about the afternoon

Remembering the blue flake in the brown eye--
how very Steinbeck, Jacob!

We drove through an enormous rainstorm on the way home to Truckee. 

"Ding ding ding!" A little foreshadowing, would you say? 

And then reading time...

We had a few breaks--a run around the block in the dark (well, almost all the way around), dinner, dessert, brushing teeth--but for the most part, we read and read and read 
and talked and talked and talked. 

We read the first two stories, The Gift, and The Great Mountains.

We talked about themes, craft, ourselves, what growing up can mean and how it finds us straddling two different worlds--childhood and that place beyond called adulthood. 

We talked about what kinds of dads we like 

and are grateful we have.  

We dared ourselves to take one moment to look at our parents one at a time, and see them as not connected to us at all -- just people. Who are they aside from our parents? 
Jody does this with Carl, remember?

We talked about how Steinbeck is so raw. 
Eleanore said, "Steinbeck tells the truth." 
Yes he does, down to the fluid of a horse eye on a vulture's beak.

We talked about some old people we know and how we treat them. 

We talked about how sometimes, the most confident writers repeat themselves. Green, green, green. No need for "emerald!"

We talked about how we refer to the events, characters, etc. in novels, we need to use present tense. Time stands still on the pages of a novel. The red pony is always alive on page 29. 

We talked about how kids want to live meaningful lives. Jody feel significance when he has Gabilan to care for.  
And when their significance 
(their chance at having that meaningful life)
is taken away, 
desolation and boredom and anger can devour the day.

We talked about the west and how it can symbolize mystery and newness and moving on. And even Death. At least in this book.  

We talked about places that held or hold mystery for us. How did we approach them? How did we conquer them? 

We talked about compassion. 

How Billy Buck has it. How Carl Tiflin does not. 

He can't quite stomach weakness enough to show compassion. 

How sometimes the "eyes" tell it all. 

We learned that writing in books is like going to Sierraville to be with horses before reading about them: it helps us connect. 

We learned how the spring is life and the cypress is death...over and over again. 

We liked each other's insights, written and spoken. 

We read into the night...then slept...sort of...

Then sang happy birthday to Logan, slid down the stairs, ate a fabulous breakfast and read some more--in our sleeping bags.

 Thank you all for this time together. For sharing your ideas and for being game to read, write and talk for two straight days!

Your assignment before our next meeting:

Re-read the first two chapters. 
Because this will be the second time through, you'll sail!  Remember to add to your margin notes (and stars and asterisks).
Read some of your favorite paragraphs to your parents.  

Find another passage you connect with and then write about that connection. It can really be about anything...anything. 

Find the connection and write.  
Remember: the connection can be loose. 
I might read about Jody's pile of eggs and think about why I'm a vegetarian!

OPTIONAL: 

After you write and your writing feels complete, you may post your passage and response onto the blog for us to read. 

If you do not want to use the blog, no worries!

FINALLY (not optional):

  Please send me your thank you note for Jennifer. 

You can email it or drop it off!

Thank you again!

Carolyn