The author sat in the viewing room above the arena waiting for her daughter and the instructor to appear for the weekly lesson. A groom led a horse into the empty arena and released it for a few minutes of turnout. The horse’s antics inspired Jennifer’s poem.

"Life jolts us at certain moments," she says.

We are never truly free
but tell that to the horse
who on a Saturday morning
has a few minutes to himself
in the pasture
just for the purpose of
thundering
in his moment
to do whatever wild thing
he has conceived
in the early half-light.