Donna Clements
I call myself an experiential writer – I write best about what I live. But when Editor Luke asked me to write about Whitewater Equestrian Center, I imagined the story before I ever left my desk. I titled it Horse on the Edge, envisioning myself atop a horse on the edge of the Blue Ridge Escarpment. That word – Escarpment – thrills me.
Life on the Plateau feels like living on the edge: of adventure, of discovery, of soul-stirring beauty.
I worried my imagination had galloped too far ahead. Traveler’s regret is real – when reality fails to meet the dream. But Mr. Kayren Hinkle and his team erased that fear. His pedagogy – wrapped in sunlight and breeze – offered lessons in equine science, botany, history, geography, and well-being.
My guide, K., was perfect. For reasons unspoken, I needed a lead. She walked beside me for hours, guiding Kiwi, the statuesque piebald horse, through forest trails. Her knowledge of horses and plants was encyclopedic. She spoke to the horses in a language few understand, and they responded with love.
She pointed out mint, ginger, cedar, poke berry – each plant named, known, and honored.
We followed Cherokee paths, the incline gentle, the forest whispering.
“Is this the edge?” I asked.
K. explained that fall reveals the IMAX version of the view, but even now, we’d sense it through the lace of leaves.
And we did.
Above Whitewater Falls, overlooking South Carolina’s lowlands and Lake Jocassee’s diamond shimmer, I gasped, “This is it!” The wind wasn’t blowing, but I felt it rush through me. The view was the wind.
This place is sacred. You want to whisper, to tiptoe. It takes grit and grace to run an equestrian center here. It’s not for the weak-kneed, but accommodations exist. It’s not for the limbered of soul, but encouragement abounds.
Whitewater Equestrian Center embodies everything we Plateau-dwellers cherish – respect for man, beast, and land. It offers the chance to be who we are, to live what we envision. For me, it was the chance of a lifetime: to sit on the back of a horse on the edge.
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