is you’ve got to be a horse person to truly appreciate them. They are more than the embodiment of grace, then an expense, so much more than a good run at the track.
Even more than a little girl’s greatest fantasy.
They’re hard work. And love. And trust. And that musty smell that despite being distinctly animal I could roll around in all day. They are the creature for which I will happily clean up after. They understand when you need someone to hold onto and just cry because your world feels like it’s crumbling beneath and the other humans don’t understand. Your horse does. Because it understands you on some level that I’ve never understood and it knows if it lets you hold it, sink your face into that warm, dusty scent of horse that in a little while you’ll be brave enough to face the world.
They’re the thing that can try to kill you on a regular basis and have you wanting to come back for more, because it’s fun. Because its nice. Because the horse makes a hell of a lot more sense than walking, despite the fact that he’s thrown you into the bindi patch before (true story). Because in true country fashion your horse allows you to spend time with other people on winding, treacherous stock routes full of sharp bends and wombat holes. Where you might just make some friends while getting your bruises.
Or the dinner plate size bruise on your calf suddenly becomes okay because you got to ride bareback and whisper insults to the pony who did it too you while you were mounting up when your teacher can’t hear you.
There is always the time you get to show your friend your horse for the first time, and she’s terrified because he’s tall and big and strong, but she loves horses and after a while you can coax her into the saddle and show her how wonderful that feeling is. How alive and free, even if you are walking her around on the lead.
Because Shetland ponies make thoroughbreds look like pansies in the scary department (I kid you not. I never kid about the awesomeness/scariness of TB’s, since my horse was one.)
How they make unattractive photos of you look just that much better merely because they are present in the photos.
Basically?
I love horses. I miss mine.
Okay, so I may have found some old photos and it’s made me depressed. Hush! I still love my equine friends. Someone with horses, adopt me? I’ll help muck out the stalls/paddocks!
:sad:
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