Heart of an Amish Farm

Horses are the heart of an Amish farm.

No matter how little you know about the Amish, one thing is obvious, horses are a big part of daily life in their world. It would be very difficult for most modern people to step into that lifestyle, mostly because of working with horses. I was driving home from work the other day and passed an Amish girl driving a buggy. I noticed her horse was galloping, which is not common for a buggy horse, and usually a sign that there is trouble. Not far down the road was an Amish farm, so I turned into their lane and watched to see if she was going to need help. Her horse was galloping so near the ditch, at one point the wheels on one side had slipped down a foot into the ditch, I was sure her buggy was going to overturn. Somehow she got her horse back under control. By the time she passed me her horse was trotting along fine.

I took this picture from my dinning room window

My novel, Under the Heavens, is all about a teenage boy from town that goes to spend a summer on an Amish farm. His greatest challenge is learning to work with horses. Throughout the story it becomes quite clear, that if you're Amish, working with horses is just part of everyday life, whether you like them or not.

Here is a short clip from a letter I received from an elderly Amishman that read Under the Heavens.

Every letter I've ever gotten from an Amish person began with a scripture verse.

I liked how he used this verse to lead into his statement of thankfulness for "... the useful horse."

In the old days, hoof-beats were the heartbeat of America; those days are gone. Today, we can get a glimpse of what that life was like, by visiting an Amish community. If you step onto an Amish farm, you will soon figure out that horses are at the core of that lifestyle. The heart of an Amish farm.