Cowgirls
this moment
rest stop
Bring me your tired, your weary, your weak…
this moment
this moment
this moment
this moment
this moment
this girl
this girl. Have I written enough about her lately? Have I sung her praises here on these pages recently? Tonight, I must. This girl, I tell you. She is. She is amazing. She is beautiful. She is strong. She is incredible. She is strength.
You know, it’s one of those things you just can’t write. You just can’t find the words. She is poetry in motion. She is grace on earth. There just aren’t words in my humble fingers that can even begin to touch it.
But, if I could for a moment please…try to break it down simply.
I sprained my finger the other day. It hurts like hell. Much more than I would have thought for such an injury. My middle finger has been swollen and black as can be for three days. It hurts so damn bad. My husband had to go out of town for work today. And, I, now own a therapeutic riding business that is not quite “in business” yet, but has five rambunctious horses who are worked up and hyper from five days of snow and they JUST DON’T LISTEN WHEN I TELL THEM TO SETTLE DOWN because I’m in pain and need a few days off!!!
As I was saying, this girl. She stepped up. She trucked the feed around all morning, noon and evening meals. She caught, haltered and stood with each of the horses for the farrier this morning (whom I tried to cancel, but didn’t catch in time) for a total of three hours. This girl. She cleaned stalls, spread shavings and trekked through the mud and muck from four days of snow now melting.
And all this, when all I asked of her to do was PLEASE halter the horses for the farrier when I saw the truck pulling in after I was unsuccessful in cancelling the appointment in time.
The rest of the work was THIS GIRL’S choice.
BUT the best, by far, was when I hugged her and said thank you to her. And she responded with “don’t say thank you”.
“But I am really thankful for all your help today, baby”
“I don’t want you to say thank you”
“Well I’m going to say it anyway”
“Well fine, but you don’t have to”
Wow. What did I do to deserve this girl?
Thank you God.
And then, she went to three hours of dance class, came back home, walked her puppy and read half of the novel “Matilda” only to go to sleep asking what we are doing tomorrow.
I think I will take this girl for ice cream tomorrow.
Cowgirl luxuries
This is how a cowgirl goes on vacation.
Days Inn. 25 minutes from home. It’s funny how things change. How priorities change. As we change and grow. As we morph into new lifestyles and ways of being. There was a time when a vacation meant a plane, visiting family, or another country, an adventure. All of that still has it’s place. But, let me explain. It had been a week …more like two… of a sick baby yearling horse (better now), working with the new rescue horses, “riding” a couple of those semi-trained ones, pregnant mare checks (she still hasn’t had that baby!), I could go on but you get the point. Basically, it’s just life here at the barn amplified a little bit. We needed a quick and easy get-away. As I was saying, oh how priorities change. Luxury, by definition, now is a quiet uninterrupted night of sleep. No tractors, no hay deliveries, no pregnant mare checks, no sick yearling checks. No 6 AM feedings in the freezing.
And lots of reading to catch up on. An indoor pool (in the middle of winter). For my daughter who loves to swim. Myself, a stack of books to read by that pool. For both of us, no stalls to clean, no dirt, no lessons, no boarders, no trail rides, no tourists.
Other luxuries? Let’s see, I already addressed sleep. Oh, controlled heat. No fire to start. Just set that thermostat and relax. Water pressure. A nice shower anytime we want. It’s hit and miss at our place unless you shower in the middle of the night. At any point in the day, water troughs are filling, horses are bathing…all leads to almost zero water pressure in the barn apartment. Time. Time, for sleep, time for relaxing, time for crafting. We did get those valentine cards done!
All of those things I’m whining about above, we love them. Honestly. We could move back into our old house. If we wanted to. We wouldn’t. We love our life. But every cowgirl needs a weekend of “luxuries”! Notice, she’s reading horse books even here? We know where her heart is.
So we can enjoy the occasional quick couple of days of “luxury” and rejuvenate ourselves too!
…see you back at the barn…
“We need a renaissance of wonder. We need to renew, in our hearts and in our souls, the deathless dream, the eternal poetry, the perennial sense that life is miracle and magic”.
–E. Merrill Root
barnraised 