If you’re looking for me these days, I’m probably out riding. The weather is unbelievably sweet, the horses are nothing short of amiable, and horseback riding is my number one favorite thing to do in the whole world, so I’m a happy girl. I’ve been averaging a trail ride a week for the past month, and am loving it so much! I have two great people to give all the credit to.
First of all, I thank my new horse friend, JoAnn. She texted me today while I was at work, bogged down in the usual mundane Monday things. “Can you ride at Hacklebarney at 4?” she asked. Well, I’m thinking it’s Monday. I’m thinking it’s the day my mother-in-law and I were going to can twenty-five jars of peaches. I’m thinking my husband won’t be home until much later than 4, and probably won’t want to babysit. I’m thinking I really shouldn’t go. But “Yes, I’d love to!” is what I text her back.
Without JoAnn, I wouldn’t be riding. I would be thinking about riding, but some other chore would come first, and I’d never get around to doing it. Most weekends we head out to the farm to work on the garden, mulch the fruit trees, do repairs or maintenance on the buildings or fences, and let the horses graze. I always say to my husband, “Maybe I’ll ride while we’re out there.” But I very seldom do, since there’s just so much work to be done and I usually am watching the kids and baby at the same time.
Also, without JoAnn, riding wouldn’t be as fun. She brings her big trailer and we travel to interesting places. If I ride alone, it’s usually down the gravel road that runs by the farm, or else down through the cornfield to the river and back, which only takes ten minutes. So it’s not much of a ride. But riding at these parks and trails is fun because you can ride all afternoon and evening and still not see it all. There are deer, butterflies, bunnies, and beautiful scenery to enjoy. So I like riding with her.
It was a perfect day for a horse ride. I felt it when I ran out to catch my horse…an excitement because I was riding Daisy this time, and I hadn’t ridden her in months. A sense of adventure at wondering how she would do on the trails…would she willingly accept getting in a strange trailer? Would she get along okay with JoAnn’s horse? It was a thrill of pride when she stepped in the trailer, a sigh of relief when she whinnied at her new trailermate. Later, riding through the sundrenched hillside, I was so proud of her for riding along so willingly, a spring in her step, a keen interest in her pricked-up ears. Daisy is a lovely horse to ride.
After a morning full of stress, getting kids sent off to school, noting too late that we forgot to complete homework over the weekend…a day of obligations, answering phones, typing memos, helping customers…riding horses is exquisite therapy for the soul. As JoAnn and I wandered the beautiful trails and chatted about our horses and our lives, I felt a much-needed “time out” from anything pressing. I had hours to ride and nothing to worry about.
But I have one more person to thank, without whom I could not ride at all: my dear husband. I texted him in the middle of his busy day of sales demonstrations to say I wanted to go riding if he would be home at 4:00. So he came home to take the load of responsibilities off my shoulders so that I could go riding. That meant holding the baby while cooking supper for himself and three kids, taking the kids on a walk to the park so the baby would be happy in his stroller and not cry for his mama, coming home to give baths and clean up from supper, and having everything safe and sound by the time I got home….his Monday work load didn’t end until about 8:00.
I came home feeling more than a little guilty…. to a quiet house. The older kids were in bed, watching a favorite show. The baby had been given a bath, was in a clean diaper, and was sleeping peacefully in his stroller. My husband is the best. And the best part is that he does all of that without complaining, every time I ask if I can go horseback riding. I couldn’t feel more loved or more blessed.
I always tell him that one of these days he should go riding with me. “Then who would take care of the kids?” he asks. And I never have a good answer, because no one could care for them as well as he does, while I’m out on a trail somewhere.
