First, let me wish all of you a safe and peaceful Thanksgiving. I hope you have much to be grateful for in your life.
I’ve always been grateful to have horses – even on those mornings when the thermometer hovered around 0 degrees Fahrenheit with a windchill somewhere in the region of -10 (well, nearly always grateful). Horses have always given me a sense of groundedness – a passion and an anchor. It’s a privilege to share space with these amazing creatures – and to be able to have my life’s work revolve around them and the people who love them is truly an honor.
The “mundane” aspects of horse ownership – feeding, scrubbing water buckets, mucking stalls – all of those tasks we often do with our minds on other things and in other places, can be seen as acts of gratitude. Having to break the ice on the water trough, slog across the field in the pouring rain to put hay out in the run-in shed, discovering that I have dirt under my fingernails when I get to work because I went straight from the barn (I keep deodorant and a nailbrush at work!) – these are only a few of the by-products of horse ownership – I’m as grateful for them as I am for the sight of my two galloping across the field to me, hearing an impatient nicker when I talk too long with a friend before I dish up feeds, feeling the softness of their muzzles. For all of these things and more, I try to remember to be grateful every day.
For all of you, with or without horses in your life, I hope you are able to find gratitude in the everyday.