An interesting thing happened on Saturday. I was at home when a car slowly drove in our driveway, looked around, then drove out again. A few minutes later, it came back. Two women got out of the car, and right away I recognized one of them as someone I knew from when we lived in town. Mary and I enjoyed running into each other now and then out walking our dogs. I hadn’t seen her in several years.

Mary was clearly delighted to see me, too. We greeted each other with a hug, and she said she was glad to find where I’d moved out in the country. They were campaigning for one of the presidential candidates and looking for a particular address. It wasn’t mine, and I didn’t know the people she was looking for. I’m guessing the address was old.

She said she hoped I was voting for her guy. I put my arm around her shoulders and said I was voting for the other guy, but we could still be friends. We laughed, but I knew right then that something had changed and some part of the relationship would need rebuilding.

I’ve seen the same thing happen in the horse world, particularly in the field of “natural horsemanship.” Folks get stuck behind one guru or the other, forgetting what’s really important. They’re often shocked to find that the gurus are friends, even if their supporters are polarized. It happens between disciplines, too. Dressage riders sometimes write me off when they hear that I’ve written for John Lyons for years, until I tell them how hard I worked to arrange for John to be able to sit in a seminar taught by Reiner Klimke a long time ago, and how much common ground he recognized. Sometimes the substance is the same and only the style is different.

This upcoming election, though, isn’t just about style. It is about the different world views of two people and their followers. I give Mary a lot of credit. She was out doing what she believed in, and people like Mary make this nation strong. I can’t say that I’ve done as much, though I did reply to a comment about “Caribou Barbie” in an online group recently.

America has a tough road ahead, no matter who wins the election. It will need horse people to help focus on our strengths and good people like Mary and me to pull together in our community. Now that Mary knows my address, I’ll have to invite her over — after Nov 4th.