Project 365 Day 82: Horse…

Canon 5D Mark ll, 50 1.2L, 2.0 aperture, 1/640 shutter, 100 ISO

Actually, I think the way my parents remember it is more like “hoooorrrseee…!”. Yeah, that’s probably more like it. That is what I would say, or whine, every time we passed one while  driving the backroads in Kansas, where I spent my early years.

I have loved them for as long as I can remember. LOVED them. My sister still likes to embarrass me by telling people how I would act like a horse when I was small, whinnying and pawing at the ground. I guess you identify with that which you love. And love them, I did. The nursery school I went to at the age of four had them, and the lady there would let me stay after school and ride. I guess that’s when it started. I’m really not sure.

When I was 11, my mom finally gave in to my pleading and bought me my first horse. I think I was driving her insane. His name was Buttermilk, a creamy white half Arabian, half Welsh pony. I adored him. Everyday after school I went to the barn and cleaned stalls. After that I would ride and ride until he and I both were covered in horse sweat. We lived on the coast of VA, and I often took him swimming in the water.  Sometimes I would just bathe him and tell him everything. I was in love. He was my world. We eventually sold him for financial reasons. I wasn’t sure if I would ever have another one.

I never got over it though. Once married, I began to dream again about having horses. Thankfully, I married a man who understands and cares about my dreams as much as I do. I have had several horses since we got married, and now we live on a farm of our own. Sometimes I have to pinch myself. I am living my childhood dream. I look out in my front pasture in the morning, and there they are, the fearsome three: Sam, Gunsmoke and Jackie.:) I am trying to muster the courage to ride alone again. My horses often spook on the trails alone, and I have lost my childhood fearlessness somewhere along the way. I have been praying about that, so that I can fully live in the life I have been so graciously given.

Someday I hope to own a Friesian or an Andalusion. I am not done dreaming yet.

I took these today when I went out to play with Jackie. We mostly just chatted while I brushed her and told her secrets, like I used to tell Buttermilk. Horses are great secret keepers.:)

James 1:17 ~”Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”