Seasons

Everything has it's season. That includes horses.

In the horse world, seasons have a whole different meaning. Summer means fly masks and fly spray and sweaty horses. Fall means riding in the nice, cool weather and dressing up as the headless horseman on Halloween. Winter means winter coats in both humans and horses, cold weather, snow, and misery. Spring means a new start, warmer weather and the smells of a new year.

I have lived through six full years in the horse world. I've seen horses grow from 2-year-olds to 'teenagers' to full-fledged horses. I've watched horses progress through training humans, and I've watched humans progress through training horses. I've seen horses misbehave, I've seen the most angelic horse on the planet, and I've seen the most devilish horse. I've been to horse shows and horse expos, horse fairs and horse workshops. I've been through a lot with horses; and not just one horse. There have been several horses in my life that have taught me things, but that is another blog post.

The seasons in the horse world blur together most of the time, but occasionally you can feel the rough transition from the warmth of summer to the coolness of fall, or the harsh way fall turns into winter. Through those rough transitions, a rider can really feel and remember the hard times throughout their life in the horse world. You reluctantly remember all of the bad things that have happened, and the good and happy memories are shoved unwillingly to the back of your mind. It's hard, the winter time in the horse world. It tends to bring out the worst in horse and rider. Only when spring comes can routines fall back into place and happy memories return to the mind.

For many riders, winter time means time away from your horse. For me, it means time with my horse, away from the riders who don't care enough to brave the hard weather to be with their horse. For me, winter does, in fact, mean the bad memories and remembering the harsh times. But it also means helping forge newer, happier memories to help the spring time come faster.

For those riders who don't ride in the winter, I pray that they will one day realize how much their life with horses depends on the harshness of the winter season. Winter brakes you and makes you. It breaks you down and then helps you build yourself back up.

It's like building a tower of blocks: set it up one block at a time; when you mess up, your tower falls down and you rebuild it again, each time better than the last.