I’ve been fortunate enough to be around a lot of horses over the past 30 years and I appreciate how much preferences vary as to who likes what in a horse and why.
I determine whether I have a keeper or not by how badly I want to work with them and how far out of my way I’m willing to go to spend time with them.
It’s like that with people too, isn’t it? We tend to make time for the ones who really matter to us and whose presence in our lives makes us happy, and excuses for the others.
I’ve had horses that have made me want to dust instead of ride. That’s a red flag in my book. The joke is that I don’t dust until the horse sculpture in my window grows a wooly winter coat. It’s not THAT bad. It’s not that far from the truth either.
These 3 – and strangely, Gus too – make me want to be out there at all random hours of the day and night. In the dark, when it’s windy or cold, after a long day, before and during a stressful one, even in the face of plenty of other things I could be doing.
Afterwards I feel happy, light and refreshed. It’s not all unicorns and rainbows, sometimes there are tough and even scary moments, and I know for a fact that these guys aren’t everyone’s cup of tea.
But they’re right for me, our communication styles and personalities mesh well and we come back stronger and clearer from what disagreements we do have, and we don’t usually have to revisit an issue much more than once.
It’s kind of like that with the “right” people too I think. Iron may sharpen iron but a constant battle is no bueno. Finding 2 and 4 legged companions who accept us for who we are tend to inspire and encourage us to want to grow into our best selves. That goes both ways.
I hope you give yourself permission to find and cherish the horse that’s right for you, and to become the human that horse deserves.
Happy, crunchy hooves-on-snow sounds for the win during yesterday’s ride with Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs Lacy, DG Cedar and DG Griffin, and Shepherds Denali and Ranger.
