The Benefits of Equine Therapy

I am nearing the end of the first week of my new adventure of having horses in my life. I have worked with a variety of different personalites (there are 7 horses and a pony at Jenn's). And if variety is the spice of life, call me Spicey and slide me a margarita! "Kat" is the elderly matriarch of the herd. She is a slow, sweet and evidently bombproof, palomino. Next is "Son", he is in his teens and is a kind eyed, well muscled, beautifully marked light colored paint. "Wyatt" is around 10 (as I recall) with a blue eye, and is a flashy patterned red and white paint. He is approx 16.1 hands and the tallest of the herd. Ironically, my first horse "Shadow", was 16.3. Shadow was an appaloosa, throughbred cross. Twenty years ago, I rode English and was into Show Jumping, Hunter hack, 3 Day eventing and such. I needed a tall horse with a lot of leg. Now in my 40's, a short little 14.3 to 15.2 appeals..lol... I will talk about the rest of the herd as I get along working with them.

What is quite clear to me at this point, is that I am reallly getting back into the groove. I am having the best time! I was cleaning stalls today with a pink bandana on my face and Trey (Jenn's boyfriend) asked if I was gonna rob a bank after cleaning stalls...lol...Jenn is thrilled to have a "Barn Bitch"...lol...I feel good, I am tired at the end of the day, but surprisingly not too sore, and am sleeping really well.

And with regard to pain and such, I am planning to focus more on the "good ways" I feel, as opposed to dwelling on "how poorly" I feel. My friend Cooper told me "I love you, but, yeahhh....you always talk about how unwell you feel, and worrying about your next illness", "Beth, that is no way to live"! I love Coop for having the balls to say this to me. For stating the obvious, yet unnoticed, to me.

Praise the Lord and pass the amunition...I am SAVED!

Gonna Jump Right In!

So this is the first of what I hope to be many, many posts. Some interesting, funny, introspective, and at times mundane and boring. This happens to be a retrospective post. My Mother, "Max" passed away on 2-9-2010. I celebrated my 44th birthday 9-18-2010. My birthdate marked the "first" of " The Firsts". I have to admit, I was extremely, surprisingly so, down. I now see that I had been glum for a couple days prior to my bday, but chalked it up to the ole "curse" coming on. As much as I enjoy celebrating my birthday (this comes from my inner Princess), I found it hard to get excited about it at all. I thoroughly enjoyed my bday dinner, planned by my VERY best friend Jennifer. I had several offers to go out and "Do" something, but by 10:30pm I was in bed and crying myself to sleep...cause damnit...my Mommy was NOT there to celebrate with and that was just NOT ok. I realize that this is only the beginning of what appears to be a rough "thing" to go through as each milestone approaches, and necessary that I survive it. This will most definitely be discussed in my upcoming therapist appt.

On a good note; I have decided to seriously consider getting back into horses after over 15 yrs. Owning horses was truly a highlight in my life. I gave it up due to injury and cost. At the time I was a young, newly married woman who, wanting to please my asshole of a husband, hung it all up. I don't think this is just a whim, although the idea literally came to me as an "Oprah Light Bulb Moment". The thought of just grooming horses(I have a friend who has several to practice grooming/groundwork and such), has got my blood heating up...it has given me a plan, a goal. It is a somewhat short to long term plan and ultimate goal of ownership. It has been a long road to recovery from my Prize fight with Leukemia (the prize being my life)! I am still quite out of shape, and physically weak. I have discussed my plan with a few women who own horses, whom I value their opinions, and they agree, that my slow boat to the arena is a good one. I don't want to get as ambitious as to start showing again. I want to "get back to basics" on a sound horse, with a sound temperment and enjoy feeling the horse under me.

As this is a fledgling blog, there will be a separate post re; my Leukemia and such. It is important to ME, for YOU to understand what I have been through. I'm not just a blog, I am a person.

I hope all that read have a wonderful week! Peace out :0)