Our friends the Smoots (which also happen to be family) invited us out to go riding last week.
Horses were my first love. I began riding and taking lesson at age 7 and after that my mind and heart could hardly be pulled away from those magnificent animals. I lived and breathed them.
All of my free time was spent riding, training, cleaning stalls, exercising, grooming and loving on a horse.
The stables were my summer camp. Horses were seriously my life.
The barn where I kept my horses is where I gained my confidence, experienced unconditional love, learned to love to sweat, learned to trust, it is what kept me out of trouble, taught me self discipline and patience. It is where I met my first boyfriend, where I took the friends I really loved when I wanted to share something special with them.
It is where I learned to strip a stall and clean out a tack room. It is where I learned to soothe a colicky horse with a little bran, some TLC and walking and walking and walking some more.
It is where I learned to tolerate mice and where I savored the smell of sweet feed and fresh cut hay.
It's where I learned that life isn't just about me and that it feels really good to have true responsiblity.
Those gentle giants and their unconditional love got me through my parents divorce and the trying years afterwards.
I made the tough decision to sell my Thoroughbred right before I went off to college. I knew that I wouldn't fully devote myself to studying if I was always looking forward to class being over so I could head to the barn. I miss them. I miss the way they feel under me. I miss their wonderful smell. I miss braiding their tails and clipping their whiskers. I miss the smell of the leather tack. I miss my stained jeans from riding bareback. Oh...I miss every bit of it. One day we will get back to riding. We have to. Our children must get to have those experiences that we have each had with horses in our lives.
Thank you Smoots for having us out. It was a true gift for me!
**Just had to throw this cutie in for good measure
I love love love it!! YOU were the one who introduced me to the amazing world of horses:) Thank you from the bottom of my heart for that!! I can't wait to pick it back up!!
ReplyDeleteSo sweet! I can't wait for my girls to spend more time in the saddle, too! It's a great place to be ;)
ReplyDeleteI have tears in my eyes! Your words were so true and really rang true to my heart! We are so blessed to get to create great memories like that. Love yall!
ReplyDeleteAlly
Will NEVER forget you and I going off to buy Middy, all the competitions and you pulling Middy to Bellville in the horsetrailer I bought for your graduation. I KNEW you were supposed to excell in riding and HAD to have that gorgeous 16 hands ANGEL, Middy, for my Shelby...it was the greatest of experiences a Mother and Daughter could have. Lace and I had cheerleading and you and I had the horses...GOD has been so good to us through all we had to go through as a three girl family...life is so, so good...I so wish a horse for Miss Jess and little Joshie...it will happen ...this I know !
ReplyDeletexoxox
Momma
You said it so well, perfect in fact! I miss my "Money" so much and regret my children can't care for him and ride him everyday. Time will tell if we will get him back or another gentle giant. Until then I try to embrase the opertunities my children have that I never did - travel.
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