It another soggy and cold one outside and in the immortal words of the great donkey Eyor, I am "stuck again". Another vacation day for the horses. It's amusing to see Facebook postings from my other horse friends all bemoaning their frustration of being inside with no way to remedy the situation. Trapped with major case of cabin fever. My guess is that riding, and training horses is like an addiction to a fix of some sort. There is just a part of me that has got to be in that moment with a horse where my focus is right there and no where else and to that end I must spend some time there on a very regular basis to keep sanity. I think it was Churchill who said that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man. How true it is for me and apparently I am not alone in this bearing this illness.
I used to tell my kids that when mommy is riding do not bother her for any reason. None. Zero. Let the house burn, whatever could wait. It was my dedicated time and they, I think, understood that mommy was a nicer mommy after she had had the time to ride. Then one day as I am riding back towards the barn I can see that my daughter Emily is hanging upside down on the swing set or play house. This was odd and definitely not a normal position for her as she was not fond of any type of position or thing that involved fast movement, being swung, merry go rounds, being held upside down by her feet etc. Not a big fan of going to the fair to ride the rides or doing cart wheels. To see her doing this gave me a startle. So I rode the horse over to where she was and asked her what was she doing. Emily responded by telling me she was stuck in that position and being the almost ever obedient child that she was, she knew I would be angry and not have wanted for her to disturb me while I rode. I have no idea just how long she had been hanging or how long she would have stayed there had I not come along and gotten her feet loose and her standing back right side up. I did loosen the rules on mommy disruption from then but it still had better be an important reason to interrupt my meditation on horseback.
On an even earlier occasion in Emily's life of having to sit on a blanket and eat Cheerios while I rode, I once again started my daily ride on my then horse Jason. At some point later I did look up to an empty blanket and no Emily in sight. She was maybe 3yrs old at this time and the place where my horse was boarded was on a major road for very fast traveling big trucks carrying coal and limestone. Somehow I made a good guess as to where she had headed and jumped off the horse and ran down the driveway towards the gate by the road. Emily was there standing about 3 or 4 feet from the edge of the road with trucks roaring past her. This one scene of my life is permanently etched in my mind and it still gives me chills to think how close she was. I caught up with her and I can't remember what all I did say as I grabbed her and got her moving away from the dangerous trucks, but I do recall telling her she had better jump like a bunny rabbit all the way back to the blanket. This term of how to travel was a saying that my father used on me when I was a kid when he was very serious about my making quick tracks or changing what I was doing. So as I am still hyperventilating from fear and major adrenalin, I see that this cute little kid, who was very nearly a hwy 19 grease spot, is crying and now hopping, just like a bunny on her way back down the long driveway. It was extremely hard not to laugh at this point from the comic relief but I did manage to hold on because I really wanted her to remember this lesson. I guess she did.
With remaing hopes for a sunny day soon I think I will go do something productive like clean the stalls, maybe oil tack, groom Jack the dog of terror... ha. well maybe that's a fantasy for him, and try to lose some of this buzz to get on a horse and meditate.
I used to tell my kids that when mommy is riding do not bother her for any reason. None. Zero. Let the house burn, whatever could wait. It was my dedicated time and they, I think, understood that mommy was a nicer mommy after she had had the time to ride. Then one day as I am riding back towards the barn I can see that my daughter Emily is hanging upside down on the swing set or play house. This was odd and definitely not a normal position for her as she was not fond of any type of position or thing that involved fast movement, being swung, merry go rounds, being held upside down by her feet etc. Not a big fan of going to the fair to ride the rides or doing cart wheels. To see her doing this gave me a startle. So I rode the horse over to where she was and asked her what was she doing. Emily responded by telling me she was stuck in that position and being the almost ever obedient child that she was, she knew I would be angry and not have wanted for her to disturb me while I rode. I have no idea just how long she had been hanging or how long she would have stayed there had I not come along and gotten her feet loose and her standing back right side up. I did loosen the rules on mommy disruption from then but it still had better be an important reason to interrupt my meditation on horseback.
On an even earlier occasion in Emily's life of having to sit on a blanket and eat Cheerios while I rode, I once again started my daily ride on my then horse Jason. At some point later I did look up to an empty blanket and no Emily in sight. She was maybe 3yrs old at this time and the place where my horse was boarded was on a major road for very fast traveling big trucks carrying coal and limestone. Somehow I made a good guess as to where she had headed and jumped off the horse and ran down the driveway towards the gate by the road. Emily was there standing about 3 or 4 feet from the edge of the road with trucks roaring past her. This one scene of my life is permanently etched in my mind and it still gives me chills to think how close she was. I caught up with her and I can't remember what all I did say as I grabbed her and got her moving away from the dangerous trucks, but I do recall telling her she had better jump like a bunny rabbit all the way back to the blanket. This term of how to travel was a saying that my father used on me when I was a kid when he was very serious about my making quick tracks or changing what I was doing. So as I am still hyperventilating from fear and major adrenalin, I see that this cute little kid, who was very nearly a hwy 19 grease spot, is crying and now hopping, just like a bunny on her way back down the long driveway. It was extremely hard not to laugh at this point from the comic relief but I did manage to hold on because I really wanted her to remember this lesson. I guess she did.
With remaing hopes for a sunny day soon I think I will go do something productive like clean the stalls, maybe oil tack, groom Jack the dog of terror... ha. well maybe that's a fantasy for him, and try to lose some of this buzz to get on a horse and meditate.
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