They say that the journey to 100 miles begins with one step. This rider
continues plugging along however slowly onward.
Through my distance riding "experience" I have felt many things.
Loneliness, frustration, embarrassment, happiness, sadness,
protectiveness, anger--many diverse and polar feelings and emotions.
I've wanted to quit. I've refused to quit. Pushed my limits for my
very late start into the sport, and I still linger and long for one, God
find a way...just one 100 mile ride before I'm too old or two injured
to get the job done. Endurance riding I can say has brought out the
worst in me and likewise the best. In no sport can you just ride,
really ride, like in our sport of endurance.
Today was an incredibly special day for me. It was different in such a
profound way given the unremarkable circumstance of when and where it
happened, that wrapping words around it is just very
difficult to explain. All I can say is that it transcended my feelings
of when I finally got to finish a 50 a couple of years ago. I went to
talk to the person
who does our group's embroidery and she asked me about our group. Where
the riders are from, what we do, how far we go, what it takes to get a
horse
to that athletic ability. I am not a talker. You will find
me hid out at a ride sitting with my horse, or kicked back reading in
my
trailer. Speaking in public does not appeal to my introverted self in
any way. But talk I did. As I spoke to her about distance riding, and
the diversity of age, and how our riders have been moving up to100 mile
rides... I felt this thing rising up in me. This
beautiful, emotional thing of the heart talking about our sport, our
horses, and
our group. Nothing like it has ever happened to me before. Though I do
a poor descriptive here, it was similar to love. When you love someone
so much that your heart swells in your chest just looking at them or
thinking of them.
That is what I feel for our Green Bean Endurance group. That deep, so
glad I'm in this, where ever it takes me love of our sport,
however we each might envision it. I thank you all for the trust you
place in us. For how you strive to reach new goals and put your horse's
first. How you conduct yourselves, and cheer one another on... It is a
beautiful thing ♥
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