The Rock Garden of Hope at Bridgehaven Mental Health Services In Louisville, Kentucky

It’s tough to capture on camera the garden of hope at Bridgehaven. One of the rocks has a horse with the word “freedom” painted on it.

I decided I am a freedom writer. I strive to be a freedom rider, too, because my equine partner is my teacher in recovery.

My Horses, My Teachers was a book written by the great Col. Podhajsky who was a director of the Spanish Riding School and an Olympian during the Games dominated by Hitler in Berlin.

He helped save the Lipizzaners from the Nazis by enlistIng the help of General George Patton, who was also enamored by equines.

Mrs. Kyra Downton was an Olympian in Mexico City in 1968 and the Colonel was her trainer there. That was where he signed his book for me when I was 9 years old.

Mrs. Downton was Russian and a fiery, passionate woman. She was an artist in every sense of the word. A sculptor as well as a Olympian on the ballet on horseback known as dressage.

The Russian people have a corner on elegance and make the finest dancers. I watched many performances of the Bolshoi Ballet when a child with my mother in the San Francisco Opera House.

I don’t know what more Mr. Putin will do with his powers of destruction. The Russian people deserve better. They honestly do.

Whoever becomes the great American novelist will probably never beat the Russian novelists.