Short and Sweet :: Those Horses.

Today, I visited the barn where I am probably going to start taking riding lessons. While I was there, I watched a jumping clinic. 

While watching that clinic, I realized how long it’s been since I seriously did anything except walk on a horse. I realized that I have been a horse exactly once this entire winter. I looked at the jumps and knew that a year ago, they would have looked like nothing, but now they look huge. I watched the three people in that lesson walk, trot, canter, ride out bucks, pull up horses that were far too full of themselves, figure out spacing, canter through grids, push and kick and smack their horses to get more energy, and finally fly over oxers and I remembered exactly how it felt to do every one of those things. I realized how much I miss doing that. I realized how much I miss walking into the barn and greeting every horse by name, stroking all the muzzles that are hanging over stall doors, and having that one furry, four-legged best friend that loves you no matter what. I realized that all of those things will forever be a part of me. And I honestly wondered how I got through the past six months without all of that.