Will: The View

The other day I rode up the Wheaton trail behind the barns. It is mostly brush and hills behind the barns, and I like to work Russell, the horse I ride, on the hills. Russell and I were walking down a hill when we came to one of the many spectacular views at Thacher. Now, at Thacher, spectacular views are a dime a dozen, and often we don’t realize how gifted we are to be here. This one is spectacular in a different way though. Right out in the hills, surrounded by brown sage brush, there are three water towers sitting on a lawn of grass so green and well trimmed it should be on a golf course. This little Oasis is framed against the mountains and Ojai Valley, the sun shimmering off a visible sliver of Lake Casitas. It’s a strange and surreal sight, one that is hard to forget and just as hard to make sense of. How do they get a lawn mower up here? Is the grass watered by the water towers? Why would anyone bother in the first place? Sometime maybe I’ll ask someone. Maybe I won’t, Maybe I’ll just leave it to my imagination.