Appreciating and Repairing the Stone Horserun at Veblen House

When I tell visitors that the big circle of stones near the Veblen House was a horserun, people frequently say "But it's too small." They just can't imagine a horse running in such a tight circle. Not knowing much about horses, I could only say I'd remembered reading it in an old newspaper article. That article, which I just reread, appeared in the March 17, 1985 Trenton Times. It was a feature on Max Latterman, who by then had served as caretaker of the Veblen House, Cottage and grounds for nearly 60 years. Back in 1927, when the property was probably already owned by Jesse and Mary Whiton-Stuart, Max was told to "build an exercise ring out of rocks for the owners' 22 horses." 

If a news article isn't convincing enough, I can now point to a new source of corroboration. The Cowboy and the Queen is a recently released documentary about a horse trainer in California who developed a non-violent way to train horses. Rejecting the brutal methods traditionally used to break a horse, he studied how mustangs communicate in the wild. The film shows him in a circle much the same size as our horserun, demonstrating how he could saddle an untrained horse in half an hour by using little more than body language. He replaces violence with compassion, trust, and respect. Few adopted his methods until Queen Elizabeth took an interest and transformed his life. My heart was in my throat through the whole film. 

The horses were gone by the time the Veblens bought the house from the Whiton-Stuarts in 1941, but the wall remains. (This photo was likely taken by Veblen in the 1950s.)

Much of the wall is still in good shape -- a testament to Max Latterman's skill and strength.

But a few areas have collapsed, perhaps disturbed in past years as we freed the wall from smothering wisteria vines. Recently, one of the participants in the weekly Gratitude yoga sessions, Artem Grebennik, approached me, offering his services to repair the wall. He had studied with a master wall builder in California, Skip Schuckman.

By the time we gave approval, he was about to return to California, but he came for one day to test the concept that one man could move such heavy stones into position. He explained the logic of the wall, with two rows of big stones running along the top edges,  firmly keeping the stones below in place. The big stones lining the top are in turn held in place by smaller filler stones in the interior of the wall. 

Artem, who goes by the name Tyoma, was surprised at how heavy and dense the stones are, but the result of his day's work was impressive. One more positive step for the Veblen House grounds.