EC Blog – We Owe Them Everything
Photo by Elizabeth Arnold
By EC Writer Elizabeth Arnold:
When was the last time you rode your horse just for the pure joy and thrill of it?
No goal to accomplish, no problem to fix, no skill to master.
Just you and your horse under the sky and on top of the ground.
We talk so often about feel—the mechanics of when to hold, when to push, when to release.
What would happen if, every so often, we slowed down, saddled our horse, and did nothing but feel?
What would happen if you lost yourself in the rhythm of three perfect beats or closed your eyes and let a one-two cadence carry you back to your childhood, trotting a tired, old horse through an open field?
Earlier today, I watched a video of a racehorse whose rider tumbled to the ground just as they left the gate. What did the horse do? It ran and it ran and it ran, until it had passed every other horse on the track.
Maybe the horse ran so hard and so fast because it was bred to run, or because it was trained to run. But maybe it ran for the love it. Maybe it ran simply because it could.
Do you ever find yourself wondering what brings a horse joy beyond a full hay bag or lush pasture, beyond a peppermint, or a pat on the neck?
Does a horse yearn for the lights of a rodeo at night or the feel of the wind in its mane when it spins? Does a horse hope for roses or seek perfection in a flawless center line?
None of us can claim to know.
But I think it’s fair to be certain that a horse’s purpose is to serve. From the war horse to the plow horse to the show horse—they do what they do, willingly, for us.
What a gift that is.
Maybe we owe it to them to ride for the love of it.
Maybe we owe it to them to sit in their presence on a cool night and listen to nothing but the bugs, and the birds, and the beat of a willing heart.
Maybe we owe them everything.
Thank you to Elizabeth for sharing this wonderful blog with readers! If you have a blog you’d like to submit for consideration, please email it to: Delores.Kuhlwein@EquineChronicle.com.
