Maeve Birch Home

    Category: Uncategorized

    • Spring Thorns

      Spring feels like it’s right around the corner here, even though I know we have at least another month of cold temperatures to get through. This past week was deceptively warm, culminating in a day that had the horses sweating under their winter hair. We had to do a bit of clipping on the undersides…

      Read more: Spring Thorns

    • Check In, Breathe In, Breathe Out

      I teach a course locally on how to recognize the very beginnings of a dangerous situation developing with a horse. Part of it is being aware of your own body, it’s relation to the horse’s body, and recognizing how your emotions and the horse’s are interacting. I had to take my own advice the other…

      Read more: Check In, Breathe In, Breathe Out

    • Not Alone

      The past week has been a little chaotic, as a close family member had emergency surgery and is still in the hospital. It’s the first time in my life when I’ve been so directly involved in helping care for a family member. Thankfully I have mentors I can reach out to who have been through…

      Read more: Not Alone

    • It’s Here! Paperback Release

      The paperback version of Standing in a Field With Horses is here! Click Here for Amazon book! When I was a little girl my aunt and uncle got me a ceramic dragon statue that I was so enamored with, I carried it from room to room with me for a couple of days, just to…

      Read more: It’s Here! Paperback Release

    • Paperback Progress

      Hello readers! There has been much progress on the paperback book front. I got my proof copy of Standing in a Field With Horses in, then my laptop started glitching so badly that I had to continue my formatting updates on a computer at the public library. Thank goodness for libraries! I have the second…

      Read more: Paperback Progress

    • Coming In Strong for the New Year

      I took a two week break from the blog for the holidays. Between family visits, holiday parties, work, and travel, this introvert was exhausted. Isn’t it strange that we take time off only to fill it with activity? Some folks thrive on social activities, but I tend to get more worn down as they pile…

      Read more: Coming In Strong for the New Year

    • The Feeling of No

      What does a no feel like in your body? For a long time I wasn’t sure what it felt like. I knew intellectually when I didn’t really feel like doing something, but there were a lot of instances when I couldn’t really make a distinction between what I wanted to do and what others wanted…

      Read more: The Feeling of No

    • Book Updates

      Two brief but important updates for the Standing in a Field With Horses book: I’m spending the rest of my afternoon decorating the house with lights and greenery. The morning was full of feeding drippy horses and scooping soggy manure in the rain. I wish it were snow instead, but we do need the moisture!…

      Read more: Book Updates

    • Travel and Thankfulness

      I’ve been traveling a lot this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, one part of which was ten hours in an Amtrack train to visit my in-laws. I wasn’t prepared for the ten hours of trying to balance in a constantly rocking train. Even sitting down, my upper body insisted it needed to be more stable…

      Read more: Travel and Thankfulness

    • Good Days, Bad Days, and a Request

      One of the things that continuously tripped me up in learning how to work with horses was that I would make a lot of progress and then one day it would seem like none of it mattered. The horse would suddenly regress, spooking at things they had accepted before, refusing things, getting fidgety, or outright…

      Read more: Good Days, Bad Days, and a Request