The Blessings of Being a Horse Person
Karlie Mitchell explains that the equestrian life is rich with rewards–and she’s not just talking about blue ribbons.
From Karlie:
We all laugh at the “crazy” stuff equestrians do that seems normal to us. Sometimes we’re not quite understood, as mentioned in my post last week. Expanding off of that a bit is my feeling that we really are blessed to be crazy horse people. There is so much to this lifestyle that defies explanation. I’ve been racking my brain trying to put the feeling into words, so here it goes:
Whatever our discipline, all horse people have something in common. We share a lifestyle that has forever changed us and either will remain with us forever or impact us forever. Horses, riding, training, learning… they have blessed us with lessons and experiences. Here are a few of them on my list–feel free to add your own in the comments section below.
• Hard Work: We learn that hard work really does pay off. From late nights and early mornings of training, riding and preparing for shows to just taking lessons faithfully and practicing in between lessons, progress is its own reward.
• Passion: We learn that nothing can take you further than passion. You do not need to be rich or have fancy tack or status to be successful. Your passion for your horse is number one in the pursuit of success.
• Love: We learn to love our horses through thick and thin. Not every ride is 100%, but we do not hold grudges on those days. We move on to better days.
• Communication: We learn to communicate, softly and almost invisibly, with an animal that does not speak words.
• Trust: We trust an animal with a mind of its own and in return this animal trusts us. We climb on trusting our horse to be safe and our horse allows us on trusting we’ll keep them safe.
• Learning: Our horses open their minds to our training and if we keep our minds open our horses will teach us just as much as we teach them. Every horse you get on has something to teach you.
• Happiness: We experience the true meaning of happiness. This will vary from person to person, but every horse person knows the feeling–whether it’s when you walked out of that ring with a first place ribbon, had the most beautiful trail ride, galloped across a field, witnessed the most gorgeous foal being born, or saw progress after working on something.
The list is endless and complex. I’ve seen how horses have positively changed my life over the years and I’ve witnessed them change others. We joke about how crazy, weird, broke, dusty and obsessive we are, but at the end of the day we are lucky and thankful to be horse people.
Go Riding.
About Karlie: I am from Alberta, Canada and live on a farm with my equine crew (a Paint, QHx Arab, and two OTTBs). I mainly do English and jumping, but also enjoy western and trail riding. I love riding, training, learning about Equine Science related topics, and having a great time with my horses.
MORE PLEASE! If you liked this post, check out…
Leave a Comment