Julie Carter
I was a kid once and yes, I had a horse. Only for a very few, and very short, periods in my life have I been without a horse. There is nothing like that kid-with-a-horse experience.
Loving horses isn't something you are afflicted with by choice. You don't just wake up one day and think, "Today I'm going to love horses."
Somewhere in the human genetic makeup is a signal switch that gives us a heart for animals and one more click of the switch focuses our love toward dogs and horses.
That's not scientific you understand, just my theory based on experience.
I hosted a 4-H Horse Show Clinic last week, and to my delight, a dozen kids on horses that showed up to learn.
Most of them had never seen a horse show, let alone been in one. A number of them were relatively new to riding and those that weren't, were new to show ring disciplines.
By the end of the day, thanks to the steady instruction of a great "coach," the entire bunch morphed into riders with a plan and horses with the same goal.
Kids are very adaptable and horses teach them as much as kids teach a horse. Put a kid on a horse and there is basic communication that rivals anything the high-tech world can provide.
There is an understanding between the horse and the child that defies description but with the naked eye, one can see the horse evaluating his rider while the rider thinks he is the one in charge.
As with people, the personalities of horses either jive with their rider or have no connection whatsoever.
A horse may, quite obviously, like his kid immensely, but won't be anything but a brat for an adult. It is a common personality grind that keeps mothers gritting their teeth and fathers determined to outlast it.
I'm not sure exactly what makes my heart swell more - a tiny girl on a big horse determined to do anything and everything the "big kids do," or a young boy who lopes off to meet the challenges of the day, riding his new best friend in the whole world.
In my distant youth, living very remotely from any real civilization, horses were my best and only friends. My only alternative was brothers. I whiled away long summer days, always with a horse as my company.
I'd sit on the top rail of the fence and tell my horse the burdens of my heart.
I'd often slip a bridle on him, slide onto his back and take off in a lope up through the meadows toward the looming mountain range with no particular destination in mind.
This four-legged best friend and I explored the world around us and watched Mother Nature in her rawest form. It was freedom at its finest.
It wasn't until many years later that I fully understood how much having horses in my life had taught me. Love, trust, forgiveness, patience, understanding, happiness, loss, confidence are all part of owning a horse ... and living a fulfilled life.
As I watched the horse clinic kids riding around the arena, my heart smiled. I knew something they didn't. I knew that this day, and every day, with their horses, mattered in their lives in ways they had no idea.
Mattered more than the fun they were having, mattered more than the lessons they were learning that day.
In all that, they were shaping their hearts for living and I was privileged to watch it unfold.
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