Jessie Haas

Here is the second stanza. They will eventually appear in inverse order in the blog, correct order on the Hoofprints page.

This rider slouches.
In each direction
he sees miles and miles
of miles and miles.
Get over the ground,
look at fences,
look at cattle,
then eat, sleep,
do it again tomorrow.
Let the horse shuffle
any old how,
as long as
it doesn't
raise a blister. Read More 

This horse poem, from Hoofprints, will appear in installments over the next few days. Hoofprints is available again through Open Road Integrated Media.

This rider,
in black jacket, white breeches,
is accountable for each step taken.
Each hoof touches earth
precisely to her bidding.
Cadence, elasticity,
metronomic rhythm,
even the ears,
even if the  Read More 

It's mud season here, and that makes me think of my grandfather, Emmannuel Trevorrow, and his good work horses, Chub and Sailor. This poem is from Hoofprints, available as an e-book from Open Road Integrated Media.

The car is
Up to the axles in mud.
It's nineteen forty-eight, most roads are paved,
But this  Read More 

I've been following and admiring the Facebook posts of Olympian (and fellow-Vermonter) Denny Emerson, as he tries to get his sport, eventing, to stop killing horses. Not my circus, though, as a sedate backyard rider. Not my monkeys.
But I'm starting to wonder if something similar is happening in my circus. Wondering today as  Read More 

Fall is a spooky season for horses and riders, with leaves crunching, squirrels behaving in a sinister fashion, the wind stirring things up--and if our horses aren't jazzed enough by all that, it's time to decorate our yards with terrifying effigies and put frightening costumes on ourselves and them.
I had a ball playing  Read More 

Someone in the audience at the Burlington Book Festival asked me, apropos of Bramble and Maggie, Spooky Season, if I remembered my first fall off a horse.
Yes. I don't remember why I fell; probably the saddle slipped, because that horse, Scamper, was a master at bloating. I remember exactly where it happened, in  Read More 

I'm excited to announce that most of my backlist fiction is newly available with Open Road Integrated Media, including several books about Morgan horses. Today, the day my friend Cheryl Rivers saw her Morgan come in 7th in the Single Horse Combined Driving world championship, the day after he became the first American horse  Read More 

Had a wonderful time in Albuquerque, Saige's hometown. Beth Larsen, the art adviser, showed me and Michael around--we saw a couple of places where the movie was shot, as well as a school that looks just like the one I imagined her attending. Best of all, I met so many girls who said, "I  Read More 

Two fun school visits last week, at the Mater Christi School in Burlington, and Elm Hill Elementary in Springfield. I always use the hush-test to discover if fiction is working. If the room gets quiet, I've got them!
My best chapter ever for silencing a room is the first chapter of Fire!, which ends  Read More 

Thanks to the Authors' Guild and iUniverse, Uncle Daney's Way will be back in print and available in a couple of weeks. This middle-grade novel, told in simple, accessible language, tells the story of Cole, a Vermont boy whose family suddenly has two new members--Mom's Uncle Daney, a crippled logger, and Nip, Daney's horse.  Read More