My fingers ache inside my gloves,
each movement slow and clumsy now,
the kind of cold that steals your grip.
I hoist the bales with stiffened limbs,
feel needles shoot across my back,
the rough hay scraping at my wrists
where skin meets air, already cracked.
The water sloshes, heavy, dark,
my shoulders burning with the weight.
Ice glistens on the surface as I walk,
my face gone wooden in the wind,
my lungs on fire with frozen air—
the kind of cold that makes you ask
what you were thinking, coming here.
But then—their shapes emerge from mist,
dark bodies patient in the dawn,
and something in me settles down.
The rhythm starts: the hay pulled free,
the scatter of the morning grain,
their soft lips searching in my palm.
They do not mind the bitter air,
these creatures built for snow and wind.
They simply stand and chew and wait,
and I am here, and that is all—
no past to mourn, no plans to make,
just hay and water, breath and cold.
Their presence is a kind of prayer,
the way they lean into my hands,
the steady grinding of their jaws,
the warmth that rises from their backs
when I press close to check a strap
or brush the frost from winter coats.
The cold still hurts—it always will—
but out here in the frozen quiet,
among these patient, breathing forms,
I find I'm less afraid of it,
less lost inside my racing mind.
The ritual holds me to the earth:
this bale, this bucket, this breaking dawn,
these horses who know my footsteps,
who teach me how to simply be
when being is the hardest thing,
who ground me in the present now—
the ice, the ache, the steady care.
Margaretha Montagu January, 2026
© MargarethaMontagu – I spend many hours each week happily writing these articles, although less since the advent of AI, hoping that someone will discover one at the exact right moment to make their life a bit easier. If that person is you, please consider donating to my charity Sauvetage et Sérénité, and make someone else’s life a bit easier in turn.
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Author Bio: Dr Margaretha Montagu – described as a “game changer”, “gifted healer”, “guiding light” and “life-enriching author” – is an experienced medical doctor, a certified NLP practitioner, a medical hypnotherapist, an equine-assisted psychotherapist (EAGALAcertified) and a transformational retreat leader who guides her clients through life transitions – virtually, or with the assistance of her Friesian and Falabella horses, at their home in the southwest of France.
What a lovely poem. but a sad poem. The January colours are shining through the frost flowers and the misty breaths of your lovely horses.