Ashleigh's Dream by Joanna Campbell

Ashleigh's Dream by Joanna Campbell

We sat on the floor of a spare bedroom in my grandparents' house. The walls were yellow, the bedsheets and curtains decorated with a matching rose-patterned fabric. I could hear the sound of the dryer through the wall, its suggestion of warmth and cleanliness. From a glass cabinet, alongside countless other items, a ceramic figurine of a German Shephard looked toward me. The ceramic dog, a banal emblem of my father's childhood, was the tallest figurine on the shelf. It loomed, simultaneously ambivalent and innocent. I thought about my grandmother in the seventies, walking her German Shephard to the Pacific Ocean, trying to forget. I thought about the olive trees.

Joanna Campbell is pictured here with Meyersville Magic, a six-year-old Thoroughbred known as CC around the stable. He is owned by Cathy Day and is a son of Horatius out of Northwich by Timothy's Champ. He was formerly trained for racing but is now being prepared for eventing. He won the Maine Entry Level Champion in Combined Training last year.