I was listening to the radio while I drove back from Walmart on Easter Sunday, when an analogue buzz interrupted the music. Three sharp...

At the age of six, I remember being given a small book to read. I was at school in France at the time, and the book was called something...

You see, life is going on all around you. Even in isolation, we are never really alone. This is what I saw on a single afternoon, around...

Gayle’s a friend of Van’s from way back when; another joy who I’m now blessed with the time to meet. She’s a neighbour of sorts, living deep in the countryside, far away from everyone, but less far away from us. I went, cautiously, to meet her over the weekend. Her grey hair is simply cut, short and practical. Her face is beautiful. We didn’t shake hands when I arrived. The reason we didn’t shake hands hung heavy and unspoken in the shared air.

When my flight out of Little Rock was cancelled, my world felt tight and small, as if life had pulled the drawstring on its horizons and...

There’s a small bottle of hand sanitizer in Russell’s car with a white label on it, reading ‘Rugged Cross Cowboy Church, Magnolia,...

The door swung open on the rickety white pickup truck as it turned into the ranch. A dark hand reached out and held it shut through the...

My first day of work for Hi Lo Pro Rodeo started at sunrise. Russell and I drove to work in the dark. The tall boles of wet trees began...

Meeting the host of my Airbnb in Oklahoma was a dystopian chess game of staying a metre apart. She took me to buy food, and, as I fumbled...

In this strange time of lockdown and upheaval, I’m surprised to find myself in the States at a day’s notice. I had gone from Uruguay to New Zealand, to visit family, and explore a new landscape. I was only in New Zealand for a few weeks, but while I was there, two big things happened. First, work turned up in America, with a rodeo stock company based in Arkansas. Then, the coronavirus exploded.

* Free subscriptions here * Read about Uruguay here Video from my Facebook page: Out of the Library, into the Saddle...

When Carlos walked into the stable yard this morning, he gave me a soft but meaningful look and said nothing. It was our last day working...

Published here by The Oldie Green leaves, dried and crushed. A simple cup – a carved-out gourd – cured through years of use. Hot water....

This afternoon, Carlos taught me how to tie up a horse’s tail using hair and spit alone. Mateo stood back, hands on hips, and admired the...

It’s a funny feeling; missing things I used to call ‘strange’. I’ve been in Uruguay long enough for the unfamiliar to become familiar,...

Horses are sociable creatures; when they’re loose on the Estancia, they always hang out in the same cliques, munching away on their favourite patches of grass. My first task in the morning is to round them up over 200 hectares of open pasture and push them into the corral near the stable yard. I tack up Tobiana, a doe-eyed skewbald, and set off at a gallop to the herd’s usual spots.

Mateo and I spent the afternoon sitting on the fence of the corral, watching Carlito break in a young bay called Rayo, Lightning. As...

Uruguay is the kind of place where you’ll find a frog in the shower and a firefly in your wine. It’s a rustic kind of magic that makes...

Arriving at El Rincon Polo Club, near Punta Del Este, Uruguay, really meant arriving at the home of Sofia and Mattias, with whom I’m...

Read "Night Riders" for Part One The morning held maté, and dulce de leche on a bread roll for breakfast before we set off on horseback...