Pink Think: “The first quality that is needed is audacity.” – Winston Churchill
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| Good Omen: A rainbow over our haystack |
Since we have lived with horses in our backyard for a couple of weeks now, I will audaciously share what I have learned so far. (It’s the kind of quick-on-my-feet observation that my husband gently likes to point out doesn’t necessarily amount to much. Love you, hon!) To sum up: it’s better than I expected!
1. What’s another five horses? Part of the deal in having the horses in our backyard was, I wasn’t going to be the go-to person for feeding and mucking after them. Everyone has pitched in, no worries, there, though my son expressed what I think has been on everyone’s mind: “We have way too many pets.” But seriously, it’s fun to feed the horses. You take two flakes of sweet-smelling hay and give a pile to each horse, you feel like their hero, and everyone’s happy.
2. Haystacks are taller in person. One of my favorite landscapes to look at in rural Utah are hay bales waiting to be harvested on farmland. What I didn’t count on is having them in the yard and feeling like I need to get “Do not cross” signs. After I stopped hyperventilating that the haystack is an accident waiting to happen, I can enjoy rainbows over it.
3. Mucking is fun. There, I said it. Though please don’t quote me to my family or they will assume I want to muck for them. But the process of going around the pen, cleaning up after our horses is kind of relaxing. I have my rake, and my wheelbarrow with bullet-proof tires, so no goat-head in its right mind will take me on. And afterwards, when I see the results, I almost want to tackle the pile (of papers, not manure) on my desk. Almost.
4. Horses are pretty to look at. There’s something relaxing about looking out the window at grazing horses. Horses waiting for you to feed them. Horses laying on the ground rolling. Horses playing. Horses flirting with the neighbor’s horse.
5. Horses ARE for the faint-hearted. It takes courage to do something insane like boxing up your whole house and leaving behind your sunflowers so someone else can raze them all to the ground. Or moving a trampoline on a trailer and hoping you don’t take out a line of cars behind you. Just so you can have your horses on your property. But it’s good for you. It builds up your muscle for harder things like running your own business and not letting clients see that sometimes you are quaking inside but you push through the doubts anyway with your audacity.
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