Once again, it’s time for Thankful Thursday!  I hope this post inspires you to consider the things in your life that you are grateful for.  If you have a blog, consider posting about it there and link back here.  If you don’t have a blog, please feel welcome to comment here on what you are grateful for in your own life.  If you don’t feel comfortable sharing, then just take a few moments to reflect on all that you have.  If you’d like to tag other bloggers that participate, feel free to do that.

Courtesy of Chauncey Davis

This week I want to celebrate the wonderful people that I am so fortunate to have in my life.  As you read this, I’m more than likely on a plane bound for Pittsburgh – my old stomping grounds that I haven’t visited in over 6 years, at least not properly.  As I have planned and prepared for this trip, I have realized how lucky I am to be surrounded by such great people.  So here goes:

Courtesy of leochi, Flickr

• First I want to thank my parents for helping me make this trip happen!  Without their support and the subsequent kick in the butt, I probably would have continued procrastinating on planning this thing.  So thanks, guys!
• Thanks to my cousin John and family for giving me a place to stay and some great company!  I’ve missed you guys so much and can’t wait to see you.
• I don’t think words can express how much I appreciate Nicole, who actually rearranged her own travel schedule so she could take care of Milo and Bella for me.  She definitely gets the selfless hero award!  (And yes, I have huge feelings of guilt about this but she is one stubborn broad when she makes up her mind!)
• I am also grateful to have Emma to rely on to take the best care of Tiny, as always.  It’s such a comfort to know that I can go away for a few days and trust that she’ll receive the love and care she needs.  In my experience, it’s hard to find people that I trust my horses with, but Emma is first class.  Thanks Emma!
• And finally, I am so so sooo glad that I found Teena at the University of Doglando.  Thanks to her, I have absolutely not one ounce of guilt at leaving Grady behind while I’m gone.  He will be spending the week going to daycare during the day and will be going home with one of the staff members at night, as part of their unique boarding program.  In fact, my biggest fear is that he won’t want to come home! 

I also feel fortunate to still have one of my oldest childhood friends still in my life.  Although we haven’t seen each other in over 6 years, we still keep in touch and I’m optimistically hopeful that we can work out a visit while I’m up there.  Over the past year, and especially the past few months I have increasingly seen how important good friends are.  I am so thankful for all those people who fill that special place in my life. 

Courtesy of Daniel E. Bruce Photography

Please visit other sites that frequently participate in Thankful Thursday:

Akal Ranch, Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch, Tired Dog Ranch, and The Pony Expression

How bad is it to laugh at my horse?  I mean really laugh at her, like a belly laugh kinda thing?  I’m not sure how I didn’t notice this before, as Emma even called me to point it out (OK, it’s true – she laughed at Tiny too!).  I guess it was the light or something, I don’t know.  But this week I noticed for sure that my horse has a farmer tan.  Like a serious, hard core tan line.  I’m actually kind of impressed…I wouldn’t mind having such a nice tan line to wrap up the summer with.  But as is typical in the world of horses, my butt is stuck indoors all day trying to make enough money so she can continue sunning herself.  Such is the life…. 

Anyway, enjoy and hope you get a giggle out of her too!  I can’t recall ever having a horse with a tan line before…oh, and I wish my full body photos had turned out better.   She actually has strap lines from her fly sheet on her rib cage! 

Once again, it’s time for Thankful Thursday!  I hope this post inspires you to consider the things in your life that you are grateful for.  If you have a blog, consider posting about it there and link back here.  If you don’t have a blog, please feel welcome to comment here on what you are grateful for in your own life.  If you don’t feel comfortable sharing, then just take a few moments to reflect on all that you have.  If you’d like to tag other bloggers that participate, feel free to do that.

Ok, get ready for a girly, mooshy post.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you! 

This week’s Thankful Thursday was easy for me.  Didn’t even take much thought.  On Tuesday, I saw Tiny for the first time in what felt like forever.  I know I keep saying it, but my riding schedule has just been so erratic this summer for one reason or another.  Anyway, so the stars aligned on Tuesday for me to pay her a visit.  It was a gorgeous evening, low (-ish) humidity, quiet and still.  I took the time to enjoy grooming her and she seemed to be soaking it all in as well.  We had a good ride and I was pleasantly surprised by her level of responsiveness after having a week off.  As we wrapped it up, the thunderheads started building and we could hear the rumbling in the distance and feel the electricity in the air.  We headed back into the barn so I could put her to bed, and as she stood in the crossties we shared this moment.  Anyone who loves horses knows what I mean – that moment of silent understanding, nose to nose, her breath meeting mine.  The wave of gratitude that washed over me as I stood nose to nose with my sweet little horse defines this week’s Thankful Thursday.  At that moment, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.  So what, exactly, am I thankful for?

• First, I’m so grateful that Tiny is even here.  When I look back on it, it’s one of those situations that just defies the odds over and over.  Her mother was an 18 year old maiden mare that was retired from competition.  Tiny was born a month premature and probably should have died.  Her mom was afraid of her and she was still in the sac.  We were out of town at the time and luckily for us the barn caretaker happened to be there at the right time to handle the situation.   She had severely crooked legs that required surgery when she was young.  She didn’t even begin training until she was almost 6 years old.  I could go on and on.  The fact that she is here, healthy and happy, and still in my life is a gift that I feel honored to have. 
• I am so thankful that I have been able to hang on to her throughout the past five tumultuous years of my life.  Somehow, through all the financial strife and the breakup of the family herd and my graduate schooling, we have stuck together.  Looking back now, I’m not even sure how it happened, but all that matters is it did. 
• I’m grateful that I have good health and the opportunity to ride such an amazing animal. 
• And finally, I’m so glad that I found such a wonderful place to keep Tiny nearby with someone that loves her (almost) as much as I do.  Sometimes, things are just meant to be.

Please visit other sites that frequently participate in Thankful Thursday:

Akal Ranch, Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch, Tired Dog Ranch, and The Pony Expression

Courtesy of Lotta Adehed

After much speculation and several extremely unscientific trials, I have determined that Tiny is, indeed, a rain goddess.  How do I know this?  Well, not once, not twice, but FIVE times now the rain has chased me off my horse.  Each time I have left my house to sunny blue skies.  How likely is it that each time I finish grooming and saddling her, the skies open to a downpour?  Literally.  As I’m leading her out of the barn to mount.  (To be fair, I did throw her off her game on Saturday when I showed up EARLY in the day to ride!  Ha!  I got her that time!)

Ok, so the other day when this happened AGAIN Tiny and I had a little chat.  I told her since she now demonstrates amazing abilities, she can start paying her own way.  As such, I am now renting out my little pony to anyone in need of a bit of rain.  Are your fields parched?  Flower beds drooping?  Never fear – Tiny is here!  And all you have to do is *pretend* you’re going to ride her.  The rain dance will commence and you’ll have more rain than you could ever need or want.  Just like magic! 

*Results not guaranteed* =)

After almost two weeks of packing, moving, and settling into my new place, I was itching to get back to my regular riding routine.  So I was thrilled when I got home from work on Friday to find the weather clear and my animals comfortably settled into our new place.  Off I went to the barn to see my girl.  It was a bit of a questionable start to the afternoon – I arrived and no more than got out of the car to a sudden downpour of showers.  Okaaaayyyyy…. alrighty, well I’m tough and I won’t melt, right?  So I went to the back pasture and started calling Tiny.  Of course she had suddenly become deaf and refused to even turn her head.  Guess she didn’t miss me much over the last two weeks.  Ok, so off I went into the pasture through the rain to fetch her (she had just been turned out and was in no way coming in on her own terms).  When I finally reached her, I saw a sight I certainly wasn’t prepared for:  my normally water-phobic mare standing in an enormous puddle of 5 inch deep rainwater, wildly munching at the submerged grass .  There was NO WAY she was coming to me, and she called my bluff.  There was NO WAY I was going to trek through shin high water to get her.  We had a standoff, I won, and eventually I finally got to ride for what felt like the first time in ages.  In the end, it was a good ride.  It felt so good to be back in the saddle again.  There is nothing in the world quite like the view from a horse’s back.