Featured Interview With Maeve Birch
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in the Appalachian foothills, in the land of cows and corn. In the spring when they’d put manure on the fields, I smelled it through the school bus windows for a week. When I was a teenager, my dad retired, and we moved further into the mountains. To my chagrin, none of the other teens at my high school were interested in nature outside of deer hunting season. I spent many summer days alone in the woods behind our house, digging fossils out of the mountainside, identifying tree species, and bringing home minnows from the creek. One day I sat so still that a fox passed three feet away from me, ignoring my presence entirely. Back then I encountered horses briefly from time to time, but never really got a good look at them outside of trail rides and chance encounters. It wasn’t until I moved back to the east coast after college that I sought out horses to interact with. I have never owned my own horse, it has always been at other barns, either horse rescues, boarding stables, or lesson barns. Far from being a disadvantage, this has allowed me to get to know a wider variety of horses and learn more about them than if I had only one horse to interact with. I’m so glad I’ve had the opportunity to work with many equines. At home I have two cats, both tabbies. One is a complete cuddle bug and the other is the most adorably stubborn being I’ve ever come across. My spouse is supportive of my equine obsession, but never really got into horses like I did. I’m grateful that I can track horse manure into the house on occasion and he doesn’t complain.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My mother was a librarian, so I grew up with books. Trips to the public library were a weekly occurrence. Finishing a good sci-fi novel while hiding under the bed covers with a flashlight happened more than my parents would’ve liked. Threatening to take away a book mid-read convinced me to get my homework done. I wrote poems and short stories beginning in elementary school, but every time I’d attempt to write a novel, I’d get halfway through it and lose track of the plot. What I needed was a topic that I cared passionately enough about to carry me through my first full-length book. The first glimmers of this memoir were initially journal entries, and it unfolded from there. In all, it took me a little over a year to go from journal entries and an outline to a finished, self-published book. Childhood me would be proud.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love reading nonfiction books about horses, wildlife, and gardening. I’m inspired most by those who mix their spirituality with the natural world. Books like Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and The Tao of Equus by Linda Kohanov led me toward my own integration of lessons learned from other species into my life and my spirituality. I also love Doug Tallamy’s books, including Nature’s Best Hope. Those inspired me to turn part of my backyard into a miniature meadow, which is a source of great joy and bountiful nectar. The smell of the blooming goldenrod in autumn is absolutely indescribable. In the winter, when the garden is asleep and the barn pasture is absolutely frigid, I read in the evenings. Sometimes I even start memoirs.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Standing in a Field With Horses is the story of the beginning of my time with horses. Initially I struggled greatly with codependent behavior, and it showed in how I interacted with horses. Horses are fantastic at pointing out where you’re lacking boundaries. That’s part of why they make such great partners in equine therapy programs. In my case I was also plagued by an inability to be a “dominant leader” towards horses. If you’re around traditional horse barns for any significant length of time you’ll hear phrases like “He’s taking advantage of you,” “Get after her,” or “Tell him who’s boss.” There is an overarching assumption that horses are out to pull one over on the humans, and will take advantage of us, or hurt us if we let them win any disagreement. In answer to that, horses are often handled with unyielding strength and rigid expectations. I couldn’t do it. I felt a deep-seated discomfort with controlling a horse’s emotional expressions when sometimes I could “hear” the horse in my body and my mind, telling me that something was wrong. It wasn’t them trying to dominate the human, it was pain, fear, or something else unrelated.
Over time it became soul-crushing. The memoir is about my quest to find my voice. I needed to share what I was seeing, hearing, and feeling from the horses. In the book there’s animal communication, moments where I failed miserably, and wonderful and mysterious happenings that I still can’t explain. I admit, some chapters made my editor cry. It’s not an easy book, but it’s an important one. Not just for equestrians, but for anyone struggling through something like codependency or fear of judgement. The emergence of equine positive reinforcement training and equine behavior studies closely mirror the rise of mental health awareness and falling away of punitive parenting and office culture in the human world. Horses are social creatures just like us. It’s no wonder, then, that we find a little piece of our own relational landscapes in the behavior of a herd of horses.
Emerging from the other end of writing this book, I have a community. There are others out there who don’t want a rigid control of horses anymore. The book is a cry of “We exist! You’re not the only one who feels like this.” I hope that’s what readers get out of the memoir. If nothing else these stories will take you on an adventure into the world of a misfit horse enthusiast, trying to find a way to be in the presence of horses while staying true to herself. Come, stand in a field of horses and listen… you might hear more than you expect.
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