06/22/2026
I'll be honest, not working a public job makes me more and more shy around people. So, I stay in my safe place—the farm and barn.
Today was just like any other day, working with horses on the farm. I was in the round pen with a young, worried, opinionated horse. It was quite busy today with tractors, sprayers, and farm equipment everywhere. I call it a great training day because our round pen is right next to the usually quiet back road.
What was different today was the cyclists. Let’s just say not many cyclists want to play chicken with the huge equipment that uses this road. The first group went by, worried they might upset the horse. I thanked them and appreciated the great training opportunity. Then two more came by but stopped to ask what I was doing with the horse and showed genuine interest in the whole process.
We invited them to come in and meet some of the horses. They had a million questions about what we do, how we do it, and some great questions on how we communicate with the horses—my favorite topic. We could have talked about horses for hours. But I also had a lot of questions about them and what they were doing. That’s when we found we had things in common. We learned we both went to school in Massachusetts, and in 1991, I too cycled from Portland, Oregon, to San Francisco.
It wasn’t for the same reasons, though. I did it as punishment for being the devil child for a while, while they did it to give back to society.
Four of us, from four totally different lives, enjoying each other the way it should be.
One recent graduate with majors in bioengineering and computer science, on her way to grad school in Southern California. Another recent graduate with majors in electrical engineering and computer science. One lifelong family farmer, no college education, who had to get a retail job because they couldn’t compete with the bigger farmers. And one who went to a special-ed type school, failed out of college, and who only knows horses.
They just graduated from MIT and have a program called MIT Spokes. They cycle across the US, teaching their hands-on approach at workshops, school programs, libraries, and summer camps all over the country. There’s so much more to tell, so I’ll leave more details in the comments for those interested. This trip covers 4000 miles from DC to San Francisco. I was amazed they traveled through this tiny town on our small road—one Google often can't even find. These girls were so dedicated, genuine, passionate, bright, and kind.
We took photos with them loving on the horses, chatting way too long, but today I truly enjoyed meeting people again. They even made me feel smart for once in my life. None of us sugarcoated how tough most days are; the highs are often overshadowed by the lows. That’s the honest truth, and it felt so good to hear.
As we all know, these days, you have to watch what you say, how you say it, and who’s around while you say it.
Thanks so much to these two wonderful young women for stopping and chatting with us—two middle-aged small-town farm and horse people.
That’s how easy it is to put huge genuine smiles on four totally different people through a simple chance meeting.
Foxridge Farm was so fortunate to a great pop in visit from strangers now known as friends.
