Up, Down, and Over: A Woman's Journey with Horses

By Catherine Côté

Ever want to consider intelligence beyond schools? Read Up, Down, and Over, and follow one persons journey to learn deep listening to hear horses and their stories. In so doing, she came to know her own truths. Without making a test of the levels of intelligence, horses teach us about ourselves and our connection with nature. Up, Down, and Over takes you for a ride among horses and their stories, so that we, too, begin to hear truths about the simple constancy of existenceif we will listen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Sep 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781452557977

Catherine Côté

Catherine Cote has been working with horses for fifty-three years as a jump rider, coach, trainer, judge, and rancher. She facilitated self-empowerment seminars for women, taught school, and raised three children. Her stories feature a variety of horses that impacted her life in different ways. Cath moved from British Columbia to southern Utah to marry a sheep rancher.

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Copyright © 2012 Catherine Cote

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-4525-5798-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-5797-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012915583

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Balboa Press rev. date: 9/4/2012

CONTENTS

Chapter One  Good Things In Small Packages

Chapter Two  The Right Horse

Chapter Three  Two Little Outlaws

Chapter Four  A Matter Of Priorities

Chapter Five  An Unhappy Ending

Chapter Six  Hot Shot

Chapter Seven  A Diamond In The Rough

Chapter Eight  The Internal Compass

Chapter Nine  Letting Go

Chapter Ten  Wherefore Art Thou Romeo

Chapter Eleven  Little Miss Goody Four Shoes

Chapter Twelve  The Feminine Principle

Chapter Thirteen  A New Game Plan

Chapter Fourteen  Bossmarey

Chapter Fifteen  A Parting Gift

Chapter Sixteen  The Princess

Chapter Seventeen  Dumped By Doodles

Chapter Eighteen  Moon Phases

Chapter Nineteen  Back To Nature

Chapter Twenty  The Herd

This book is dedicated to:

- my parents for embracing my formidable desire to ride horses,

- my cousin Vicki, on the same wavelength, as we’ve gone from giddy-up girls to galloping grandmas,

- my understanding daughter, and riding buddy, Erin, who has a lot of horse sense,

- my neighbor, fellow horsewoman and special friend, Ellen, who is keeping me in the saddle and looking forward to the next jump,

and

- my supportive husband Doug, who helps me out no matter how unusual my horse needs seem to him.

FORWARD

I sat at my desk one evening, challenged to write something — anything — to counteract post-divorce depression gnawing at the edges of my psyche. With fingers poised over the keyboard, I asked, What on Earth should I write about?" of the Powers That Be, and the answer followed.

With no apparent cause, the arrow attached to the wall above my desk fell and landed on the floor. Bending down to retrieve it, I discovered a lost picture of my deceased horse, Fergie, under my desk. The arrow pointed directly at it. I had been given the name Arrow on the first of many soul-nourishing getaways with my women friends. I agreed that it captured an aspect of my personality, so I kept an arrow as a memory of that time. Fergie’s story, then, gave impetuous to many more.

Fergie and I had six years together and his death had been a turning point, a wake-up call. In rebound mode, I started asking the right questions, and in experiencing the answers, the doors to self-knowledge and genuine living creaked open.

Adjusting to the ups, downs and overs of new separation, I wrote a story whenever I felt sad, overwhelmed or un-certain. Over the following months, ten stories unfolded and my spirits rose. I became aware that with each horse, as with each human, I had been blessed with further insight and my character strengthened. I realized a new faith. Life would provide me with the tools and resources to gallop down to the next obstacle if I just kept moving forward.

The stories span fifty-three years, with the last two describing my life in Southern Utah married