The View From a Horse

An unencumbered view of Southwest Virginia’s foothills settled into my subconscious, gently forcing acceptance

Photo by Grace Franklin

By Elizabeth Poland Shugg

For two years, I lived on a horse farm in southwestern Virginia. My mother remarried the summer of 1986 and we left Athens, Georgia, for a rental home on State Route 812 in Fincastle, Virginia, 20 miles northeast of Roanoke. The two-story duplex fronted a horse pasture at the foot of a hill. We could watch the horses graze from our kitchen window. 

I turned 14 that summer—not a good age for disruption. The horses definitely helped.