Focus & Passion

What draws us to the horse?  One of my earliest memories is the huge draft horses that were used as working animals on my grandfather's farm.  I actually only clearly remember one, a grey (white) that was used to drag a skid weighed down with tobacco.  The others are a part of my family lore.  My earliest memory is sitting under the big grey horse for shade when I was two-years-old, and my mom finding me and frantically plucking me from beneath the massive animal and there began my love of horses.  The farm was sold, and from that point forward in life I dreamed of horses, horses,  and horses.  I was drawing the geldings anatomically correct as a five-year-old much to the dismay of my grandmother.   To place my hand on a horse, to breath in that signature aroma did something addictive to the pleasure center of my brain. I could not get enough, it was my happy place, but I could not have it, not for many, many, many years.  That is the focus and passion that I have pushed aside for goal reaching.  Live in the moment, enjoy your horse this day, this ride, right now.  When training issues arise I at times find myself getting angry...why do we embrace anger with our horse who does not have an agenda other than to eat, breathe, and feel the warm sun on their backsides? These animals live beautifully in the present, so why can't we?  When I came home from work yesterday I could not find my horse, and a blackness settled around me as I scanned the back pasture, then the front pasture, and called in fear and dismay, Phebes!  She arose like mist from the winter landscape, and cantered (actually floated) over the snow to perk curious ears and nose over the fence to say, hey!  You are my person!  That is the meaningful passion of what a horse and human bond are about.  It is worth more than gold. I hope that in the coming year I will remember this moment and implement it into whatever we embrace on a given day.  ~E.G.