My Horse: A Reminder

I love my horse. He is wonderful. He makes my horrible days slightly less horrible, and actually more close to wonderful. He makes me laugh until I cry. He gives me snuggles and smiles and sometimes I think he might actually love me back.

He tries his heart out for me. I think he would sooner crash through something then refuse to jump it. Even when I do everything wrong, I can see the wheels turning in his head, trying to figure out what I'm asking, and trying to put that into play.

He is the goofiest little creature ever. He knows it, and he thinks he's hilarious! He loves picking up the broom with his mouth and sweeping, and then will drop the broom and nicker at me, like "Hello! Mom! Did you see that?". His other favorite thing to do is pick up brushes that I've set down, drop them, and pick them back up. Again and again. It's hysterical, and he gets such a huge kick out of it, too.

He loves people, or at least tries to. (But the people he dislikes? Oh boy, watch out!) He gets on everyone's nerves, but it's okay, because everyone who meets him is instantly infatuated with him.

He is not perfect. But that's okay. Neither am I, nor will I ever be. But that's okay. He won't ever be perfect either, but I'd like to think our imperfect puzzle pieces fit together pretty darn well.

But that doesn't mean that sometimes I don't come home and cry and scream and tell my mom I want to sell my horse except nobody except a glue factory will want him, because he's worth nothing. And sometimes I cry and scream at my horse and then he gets very sad, and I get very sad. And then I get to thinking - you know what I conclude?

It's all me. Literally, 99% if not 100% of our problems are because I'm too stubborn, too lazy, too apathetic, to insecure, you name it.

Yet! I still blame my horse. And that is bad. Because my horse is all of the wonderful qualities I listed above and more.

He subtly reminds me of that on a daily basis, but I don't give him credit.

I absolutely adore my horse. He's just the greatest. Today, for example. I had a horrible, horrible, horrible day at school. Legit, nothing could've gone worse. (Except the apocalypse, someone dying, or, ya know. The usual.) I didn't want to go to the barn, but I hadn't been out since Monday, and haven't worked Gambler since Sunday, so my mom made me go.

Well, we got to the barn and it started thundering! No rain yet, so I decided to groom Gambler and love on him a little,  just out in the field. Well, then I started getting sad about everything that had happened today. My horse, being the perfect creature he is, cheered me up. I started crying, and he suddenly got very overprotective of me. He shooed all of the other horses away, and started nudging my shoulder. I'm not even making this up. I hugged his neck, and he wrapped his head around my side. It was the cutest thing.

Things like these remind me why I do this. Or when I'm coming down to the barn and I call Gambler's name, and he comes running to the gate. How when we're playing around at liberty, he is perfectly content on following me around and doing everything I ask, even though it's dumb. How one time, when he was galloping with the herd, he saw me, left the herd, and came over to hang out with me.

So, this is just a reminder to me of why I love my horse. I love the reward I have gotten out of rescuing and training a horse. It is worth it, Amina. So remember that. Whenever you're sad. Remember how much you love your horse. And more importantly, how much he loves you.