I Want Horses

Once upon a time, I wanted a place in the country, with horses. We do live in the country, but these horses belong to our neighbors. Every day when I leave the house, and come back, I slow down and admire these beautiful creatures, and in return, they stare back at me. I really don’t know a lot about horses. In fact, I’ve been a little afraid of them since I was a little girl. I had a cousin who was in the rodeo. He had horses, and he used to ride his most kid-friendly horse to our house (that was way back in the day our town had a population of about 1,000 people. Now, it’s 24,000) I used to love to ride that horse. My cousin’s name was Edward; he was killed when I was about 10. He died doing what he loved, although it was dangerous. He was riding a bull in the rodeo. He was thrown from the bull and trampled, then was pierced in the chest by the bull’s horns. I remember Edward stopped me from walking behind a horse one day, telling me to never walk within kicking distance behind a horse. I was shocked and said, “what? You mean, a horse would kick me? Hurt me? So, having an innate fear of, well…everything, I avoided horses all together, except from a distance. Until a few years ago when Stephen’s dad talked me into letting Stephen ride a horse, while the guide walked beside them. All of a sudden, I remembered that feeling of being on Edward’s horse, and stroking it’s mane, petting him, feeding him apples. My fear of horses began to slip away when I saw how gentle this horse was with Stephen. I was afraid to let him ride a horse bc I thought the horse would scare too easy. It was amazing to watch. We have a special equestrian ranch outside of town. I want to enroll Stephen for riding. It does wonders for those with CP. It helps balance control, and a number of other things. But what amazes me, is how calming it is for Stephen. He loves horses. Sometimes he and his dad walk down to the pasture and feed these horses. Today, we stopped the truck when we saw them, and they began walking to the fence. I had my camera and wanted to get a few pics. Turned out to be very calming for me. I’ve been stressed lately, worried about mama. The horses came straight to me like they were saying, “finally, you are not just looking at us. You came for a visit!” I didn’t reach out to pet them, they reached out to me! The fear has been broken. I could have stayed for hours.