Peace of Mind

Woo-ha!

I might've been up until midnight last night, but I was so excited about today that I couldn't sleep. I forced myself to stay in bed until 7:30 somehow, and when I finally leapt up, I tried to find every little thing that I could do to pass the time until 11:00 when I would meet up with Lauren and John and head out to the barn.

I was so happy that I was laughing and basically making a fool out of myself at breakfast, but I didn't care. All I wanted was to bury my face in Fancy's neck to beat the cold of the day, and I knew that moment would come soon.

Lauren picked up some dude named Jerry along the way as we walked, and I was leaping around and running like a puppy on caffeine, aka Samson the high-speed dog, for those of you who know him.

Anne Marie was leaning against the wall of the barn, waiting for us. I was too excited to say hello; I walked right past her and made a beeline for my horse, clipping her leadrope on and walking her up for John to see.

He was rather impressed by her, as was made clear by his facial expression, looking up at her in...oh, how best to explain that look...proud awe...? It made me smile inside.

My initial excitement began to fade when I began walking Fancy for her 15-minute-mini-stretch. Ms. Wilson wasn't there, so there were no chores to do. And the tack room was locked. So much for grooming my horse with the charcoal block like I wanted to. And I'd wanted to pull her mane. Oh, well.

After Fancy's little walk, I told everyone I was going to pull burrs out of her tail. Lauren said, "Well, I don't really want to pull burrs out of a horse's tail." So she and Jerry left. Anne Marie stared at me for a bit and decided she was going to leave, too.

"Really?" I asked. "Aw, you guys are no fun!"

So John and I set to work. Fancy's tail was twisted up in a contortion even worse than Picasso's paintings, intertwined with fat burrs so sticky they could be used as Velcro. I kept pulling hair by hair out of the mess, working deftly with my gloved fingers, determined to bring reality back to this fine picture of a horse's rear end.

After a while, I looked up to see John standing at my horse's chest, his face close to her neck. For that moment, he was peaceful, a change from his normally stressed self, caught up in politics or the stockmarket. As for me, I was peaceful, too. There's just something I get from being with my horse, some sort of therapy that's indescribable.

It's like a breeze that blows into my soul,
A fire melting through the cold
Secret of a story untold,
That when I close my eyes, I can see.

John asked me then if I was content just being with my horse.

"Yeah," I replied dreamily. "I could just stand here doing this all day."

Although in reality, I couldn't keep battling the tangles all day. So I washed Fancy's leg and rewrapped it, letting her go in her little pasture.

I can't wait to do this again, though I'm hoping there'll be more work to do.

In the meantime, you'd best hope to hear from me tomorrow; I think I'm going to try riding Fancy again!