Episode Details

But Will There Be Riding?

A social media post that took five minutes for me to write reached more than 40,000 people in a couple hours.

It wasn't my weekly essay, nor a podcast. It was just a little announcement for an introvert-friendly book club held in the hallway of a horse barn.

As strangers began signing up for an event built around silence, I found myself wrestling with an unexpected question: How do you protect something whose greatest value is that almost nothing happens?

This week, I'm writing about social media, boundaries, horses, and why our culture is so uncomfortable with stillness. Along the way, I answer the most frequently asked question in the barn:

"But will there be riding?"

Often, the most important thing a horse teaches us isn't found in the saddle at all.

In this episode:

- Why a simple Facebook post unexpectedly went viral

- The challenge of protecting quiet spaces as they grow

- What horses understand about presence that humans often forget

- The surprising value of doing less instead of more

- Why Books at the Barn isn't really about books

Referenced in this episode:

📖 Stable Roots — Weekly essays exploring horses, land, grief, wonder, and the ordinary moments that shape a life.

🐴 Bramblewood Stables — Horsemanship, coaching, farm memberships, and community gatherings in Simpsonville, South Carolina.

📚 Books at the Barn — A free monthly gathering where everyone brings whatever they're reading (or writing), and we spend an hour together in companionable silence before optional conversation afterward.

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love it if you'd share it with someone who could use permission to slow down for an hour. Your support helps preserve this old farm and keeps these weekly stories coming.