Perspective

My day started out well today.

I had a great ride on Callie.

I schooled Dr. Laura Reicks horse "Mikayla" and that was a special treat for me!

I am working on her to let me compete her.......fingers crossed.

Beast gave me some great work.

My good friend Becky flew to Canada to teach for a week so Little Ossi and I have two of her horses to ride.

Mine was a good boy.

Fiesta gave me a great ride around the competition course of both the show jump and cross country.

Sharon and I went out with Stephen to watch him teach some lessons and towards the end, we noticed a horse running up the hill with out a rider. The horse had been out schooling with another group of people that day.

The horse injured itself jumping. The group was doing everything safely, everything correctly, an accident just simply happened.

The owner looked to be a young adult and was uninjured. The horse did have to be put down.

It broke my heart.

What is strange is that it made me think of Maggie.

Watching this poor girl try to keep it together made me feel sad that her family was apparently back in Canada.

She did have an amazingly kind set of trainers with her and I was so impressed with the way everyone handled the situation.

I went back and forth about whether it was my place to write about this.

I don't want to go into detail as I feel it was a very personal situation between the horse and owner.

It was the perspective that shocked me. It is a shame that it must take a tragedy to snap a new set of eyes on the world that we are blessed to live in.

Every day is a gift. Every moment with our friends (four legged or two) is a special one.

It can be easy to loose sight and to prioritize things in ways that may not make sense. It can be easy to make judgements on other peoples priorities....which are none of our business.

I am so thankful that my equine friends are healthy.

I am so thankful to have my life with my husband and my daughter.

I am so thankful for Darenth farm and the people there that have become my family.

I have had loss in my life, including the somewhat recent passing of my mom. Loss does bring a change to you. It can bring a new light .....or darkness to life. I have always felt that tragedy is a defining moment.

An example of what I mean and that always amazed me is this:

My friend Julie waited years and years to get her horse Rio. She met him when she lived in Texas and he stayed there as she moved back to Maryland. She saved the money to buy him and after much time had passed, she got the funds together and purchased him.

He died shortly after he arrived in Maryland. I can't remember how long she had with him but it was less then a year.

When people hear the story from her and expressed their pity of her short lived horse ownership , she always stops them and says with a smile "he was able to spend his last year with me!"

Sometimes things suck.

Sometimes things are amazing.

All the time, there are people willing to stand by you as you go through it.

My prayers go out to the girl that lost her horse today.

My thanks to anyone that brings light to this life that we are so blessed to live.