Moving Away From Horses

I’ve heard stories of people who have gotten out of horses altogether. Sent their remaining horses to auction, collected all of their horse equipment to be dumped off at the local tack shop or consignment sale. Pictures of their horse encounters boxed up along with any ribbons or trophies. They moved on to college, had to grow up and get a job but not one that paid well enough to keep their own horse or stay actively involved. Perhaps they got married and decided to have kids, promising themselves that at some point they would reinvent themselves and once again claim their horse passion before it was too late. I have watched these things and wondered how a person who loved horses could ever fathom the idea of being without, until now.

No, I am not giving up my horses. Yes, I am selling several of them – possibly. Mostly I know that something is going to change as far as my involvement first hand with horses, likely rather drastically, and I don’t know for how long. I have had horses in my back yard saying good morning to me for the last 11 years and been able to nuzzle up to them to get a lung full of horsie every day before that for another 4 years. I’ve made it through some of my college years, full time jobs, moving 2000 miles from home and back, and still always had one of my horses near and dear to me.

Now, I will be moving again, this fall as accurately as I can tell, but have made no plans to bring a horse with me this time. Those I keep will be stay at home on the family farm to be loved on by my parents. Those I am not keeping will find loving homes before I go… although there is still debate and continual indecision of how many, who and whether any of them will be going anywhere! My mom and I both have big hearts and these are our babies, so it is difficult to decide whether to sell them or just keep them as pasture potatoes.

This is in small part why the blog has been so quiet lately, between my semester finals at school and working on moving details the rest has been on the sidelines. Besides that I have been wondering what it is that I wish to write about, as the Rollkur issue has abated (though not necessarily with due reasoning) following the banning of Rollkur and allowal of deep and round? It seems that with summer’s arrival all of the pent up winter energies that had a focus and direction begin to subside temporarily. Good or bad.

I took up painting this semester, and while my original plan was to major in Nutrition Science it was this class that completely changed my outlook. So… now I am looking at art schools in the Seattle area. As some of you may know I’ve done a lot of designing in the past – digital wise, so this isn’t completely off kilter for me to think of going into the arts. I have always had a love for paintings and it was some of this that made me start up a horse art magazine last fall called Haute To Trot Magazine.

“Knabstrupper Foal.” Oil on canvas.

Some of these are what has gotten me thinking about what causes a person to move on from being directly involved with horses to being indirectly involved, or even leaving them altogether. I have girlfriends who were horse crazy as children, still are deeply in love with horses but for various reasons have moved away from them. Some are financial and others are emotional. I have also seen myself moving away in other ways, as I watch and learn and grow and ask more questions I find fewer reasons to compete, to train the horse to all of my whims and fancies, or to have a specific goal as pertains to the horse. I can find understanding with equestrians who work with horses on experiential levels, those who keep them as companions rather than for riding. I see the value in the relationship with the horse when it is interactive and fair, but that is not something that accompanies working with horses and making money directly from them. So in that regard I feel I am moving away, giving some distance.

In other ways I hope that I am moving closer to the horse. I hope I am learning to see them in new lights and gain wisdom from the interactions I have with them. If for nothing else our horses are amazing teachers!

Oh, and I know this is a bit of a rattling post, do forgive me. I may have something more organized for the next one!