[…brushed him for so long but could NOT get those spots off!]
I went to the barn with Jade tonight and we rode. It was a perfect summer night under a beautiful sky, in the splaying arms of a cool night breeze with one of my best friends; there were barn cats wrapped around my ankles and I had a grin plastered on my face the entire time. Yup. It was perfect like that.
Sometimes I don’t realize how badly I need my own horse until I am sitting on one, smelling those sweet old hay farts, neck reining, side passing, sitting a trot and rocking into a canter divine. I’m ready. I’m ready for my horse now. I’ve been ready for ages.
My favorite thing to do horseback is drop the reins, put my arms in the air by my sides (not touching, but not totally relaxed); I close my eyes while allowing my hips to fall into perfect rhythm with the gait of my horse, I move my arms along with, as though I am walking — if you have ever ridden with me, I’ve shown you how to do this. It feels like what it must feel like to be a centaur.
When I do it, I imagine I am a centaur walking up a mountain slope, step by step, steady and strong, serious and beautiful; I am going to look at the stars to see what the future may hold.
….and such a perfect centaur you would be.
[let me know what you see when you look up at the stars….]
x
I think I’d make a good faun, too. 🙂
Oh my – this reminds me of my childhood SO many years ago with my father. He became an avid rider after not being able to “just sit and watch” with the other parents at my riding lessons.
He eventually became such a horse lover, he packed us all up out of the suburbs and moved us to a meager horse farm. He started a riding therapy program for children with disabilities. Anywho – one of my favorite memory feelings… riding a slow trail through the East coast woods, dropping the reins and letting my young teen body hunch (while most of my life I was told to sit straight!)to a complete relaxed state and feel the motion of the horses gait. it was like a hypnotists watch. it put me into such a tingly state of bliss that, I believe, most teens never got to experience without other means of artificial stimuli. Thank you for sparking my memory of this, dear Jillian.
I always love stories about dad’s going back to the farm. 🙂 I have a handful of friends who have fathers that always dreamed of keeping horses or small scale ranching and so many of them have moved out to land in their middle age — my own dad bought a quarter section in his 50s and now keeps an absurd number of horses out there.
Love the story about your horse hunch, too. I know just what you mean. Moving with a horse like that is like floating on your back in the ocean and becoming one with the swell — very elemental and transporting.
Thank you for being here and for taking a moment to share.
X
So precious! Love that close up of his soft nose 🙂 I’ve always wanted to try riding a horse but hear it becomes quite an expensive hobby!
Well you SHOULD try! I think it’s crime you haven’t been horseback, actually. 🙂
What a beauty that appy is. Enjoy it for all us horse-lovin’ but not-horse-havin’ girls out there!
Shall do!!!
I MISS HORSES. I do. I took riding lessons for years when I was a kid and there are days where it still hits me how much I just MISS them; huge animals, smart and empathetic and very aware of everything you’re doing/feeling at any given moment. I even miss the first horse I started out on, a paint quarter-horse/random pony mix named Misty who hated everyone who took lessons on her but me. She and I got along well, we were both stubborn as hell and willing to fight over nothing. I was incredibly sad when I grew too tall to keep riding her and had to move onto a larger horse.
If I bought a horse, I’d have the weirdest requirements ever, because I’d be asking all the people selling “Are they a stubborn little git? Because that’s what I want.”
Horses are like that — there is some incredible ancient sense in some animals that connects directly to our human mind and heart wires. It’s a really cool thing to feel and comprehend.
When you connect with one, you really connect.
I laughed aloud at your last sentence! HAAAA!!!
Seated on a poke-a-dot pony, mare’s tails in the sky – best way in the world to smooth ruffled spirit and tangled days.
My first horse was an appaloosa.
My last horse was a morgan.
In between were a few quarters and a thoroughbred.
All of them were my friends.
I wish you a friend like that as soon as you can manage it.
I wish the same.
I’m keeping an eye out and kind of shopping right now. Rob is onboard with the idea, as well. Hopefully the right pony comes my way, and soon!
makes me very happy to think about the perfect horse clip-clopping into your life and both of you knowing you were meant for each other.
Me too.
Me too, sister.
While you were riding and brushing, I was out with “The Wilds” wondering what it would be like, if I could tame one enough to let me on his scarred up back.
Your description of barn activity, THAT SMELL, and sitting on a horse, made me miss and remember my times with Banjo, my Appy from long ago.
It made me miss the way his coat felt on my bare legs, when I rode bareback, in shorts, barefooted and free.
I’m so glad you went to the barn with Jade. In a way, I feel like I was there, too.
Those pictures, you made them come alive for me. Thanks for that.
Have you thought about adopting a wild horse???
X
wearing horse scent would be magnificent xx
Unfortunately, not everyone loves equine perfume. 🙂
So glad you could get out and be with both a dear friend and a four-legged light bringer.
Glad you had a great evening to lift your spirit higher.
xx
Oh, the spirits are up!!!
I’m back in the saddle here.
Everything in its place, and so on and so forth.
🙂
X
Once you’ve got horse in your blood there’s no going back! Last November I had to have my 28.5 yo boy (Smedley) euthanized. I had him (or maybe, more accurately, he had me) for 22.5 of those years. I still miss him. As of this spring I was back taking lessons – so that I can at least ride and be with the horses! Of course, it’s not the same as having your own horse and I’m fantasizing about that….
So, I’m sure you can tell which way I’m leaning – buy a horse, especially if it’s that pretty Appy!
I know.
It’s like a strange, beautiful disease.
Smedley lived to be 28.5 years old???!!! That proves your love is good.
My girlfriend, Jade actually, in the last photo here, had her horse Jiggs live to be 30. He just died this winter, actually, right after he rode her to the alter to be married. She made a pact with him when she was in her teens that she wanted him to ride her down the aisle to her husband on her wedding day.
Well, in this case, it was a large horse pasture he took her across out to a bluff with three large bonfires burning and then he had to watch a choreographed hip hop wedding dance (that Rob and I were a part of). But he did it. He lived long enough to fulfill his end of the bargain and then he let go a few days later.
Horses remember and keep their promises. Fact.
I won’t be buying this appaloosa but there is a little strawberry roan at this barn that I am wondering about. She’s a babe.
I am one of those people you mentioned in a previous post – I often sneak peaks at your blog from work and escape for a moment or two (or three). It a privilege to visit your beautiful world.
My ex-husband never understood why I love horses so much (one of many reasons he’s my ex!) Next to dogs, they are the best friend one can have. I live near the UMASS/Amherst Horse Farm, and there are two new colts or fillies (can’t tell from a distance) right now. People pull over and gaze out over the fields. So peaceful. So glad you got to ride.
Lauran
I love your admission. Maybe keep it a secret from your boss though. HA HA!!! 🙂
Next time you pass Amherst you should take some binos. I’ve been known to stop on the interstate to look at horses! 🙂
I do this too!!!
So beautiful to see these photos. Great reminder to get out there and ride.
True thank you for this post.
YOU have no idea just how much….
Always my pleasure. Thanks for being here, Mardi.
I love that picture of his face up close staring at you through his mane. So gorgeous. Horses are the best.
That little horse is hilarious. He’s a Newfie with Stevie Nicks hair. And he gets really really excited at feeding time. Too cute.
Lawd! It’s been years since I swung my leg over a horse. I do very much miss it. In one of my past lives I was a park ranger in charge of a mounted unit. I got paid to ride around on awesome trails alongside the Brazos river on very well trained horses. That was a spectacular “job”. One of my fav mounts was a stunning old gentleman Appy named Don. He was bullet proof….except for his greatest fear – Asplundh tree trimming trucks! Not any other big trucks…just those particular ones. Breath that horsey aroma in deep!
Which park did you work in?
They don’t use horses like they used to in National Parks. I grew up in a handful of national parks in Canada and wardens (what we call rangers in Canada) relied heavily upon horse back patrol, my dad was always riding out with a pack horse in tow to various backcountry cabins and stake out operations. It’s a different era now when it comes to ranger work. But maybe it’s just different all together. There was a major poaching problem in Riding Mountain National Park when my family was stationed there. Like…wild west style with guns and horseback chases…
Hilarious that Don was afraid of Asplundh trucks!!! HA!!!
I worked for the city of Waco, TX. In addition to a lot of smaller parks there’s one alongside the Brazos that’s pretty big for a city park – a little over 400 acres. Most of it is rugged cliffs and dense vegetation. But there are trails throughout. I had confrontations with gang members, pimps and prostitutes, and various criminal elements that bleed into the park from the adjacent “bad neighborhoods”. But I never had an experience that was terribly frightening/bad. One time I found the body of a person who had intentionally jumped from the cliffs….and there were heat strokes, bad allergic reactions, blood and broken bones to assist with. Other than the park we rode the horses around the downtown area and worked crowd control. Not every day included riding. The rangers were also responsible for trail maintenance, working events like adventure races, and leading programs/hikes. I lived in a camper trailer near the horse barn about 30 feet from the river. Sometimes I heard gun shots at night from the “hood”. That was kind of crazy. But I surely did appreciate my job and it was great. It sounds like your dad had one of my DREAM jobs! I know I would’ve loved (LOVED) working in more expansive and remote areas.
Fascinating!!! Sounds like you had some crazy crazy humanity stuff to deal with!
Horses…horses….they are magical and if you are lucky enough to have seen some wild ones running free, there nothing more beautiful. Hope you get your own one day, too nice.
Thanks, Nathalie.
I would have loved to have seen you as a child, girl.
You will have your horse someday. It will happen when all the pieces fall into place, and it works out beautifully. I know that feeling though. I told a girlfriend the other day, if you want to be with someone who wants to live in the country, maybe you should move TO the country first. Like, if I want to have a dog/horse/etc., maybe I should arrange my life to make it possible. I think your life is ready. Your arms are open. It will happen (even if it means us driving north to kidnap one :D)
I should scan a picture of myself as a tyke! Not a lot has changed. Scrawny, blond, chicken legs…I almost always have a dog or cat or horse in a picture with me. 🙂
Right. If you want something, start setting things in motion in your life so you can get what you want. Begin to move in that direction.
Rob and I are pro-active people in that regard. If we want something, if we have a dream, we do the work to make it happen. We don’t sit back and wait for it to happen on its own or fall into our lap.
X
love and light sweet friend
Back at you, babe. X
Thanks for sharing the centaur experience Jillian. I started riding again a few month back and never realized how rigid i hold my lower body during riding. The moment I started imagining myself as a centaur, i became aware of this. From that moment I felt much more in contact with my horse. I became more relaxed and so did he. I am going to practice this a lot more. Just goes to show you never know what you’re going to learn from whom. 🙂
It’s all in the hips hun! Keep them open and flexible — it will help ground out your sitting trot and canter besides just being generally more one with your horse as he carries you. Have fun! X