Riding Ruminations

So I was teaching last night (big surprise there eh?) and when I left my car to start just before 4:00, it told me it was 34 degrees out. By the time I was done teaching @ 9:30, I was cold. Huh??? Car tells me it's 19deg! Boooo. 19's still ok but not compared to 34! Then this morning it was 15. I'm really hoping this doesn't mean summer's already over :( So on a different note, I've been asked a couple times in the last couple weeks why? Why spend all that time, money, effort, and stress for evidently no return. Particularly to those deep in the business world, this is completely illogical. Esp as "you have other options" and "you have a good job, why would you leave that to muck stalls?" Why would you give up 9-5, benefits and vacation time for 24/7 and none of the above? -- and I admit, sometimes I question the sanity of that too. hahaha and yet I'm working very hard to make that happen. There are those who say that those who don't know, can never understand. As though there's a wall and those who get it are on one side, and those who don't will always watch on, bewildered, and not the least bit interested in crossing over. And then there are those whose answer is "it's as important as breathing" which of course gets instantly dismissed as overly dramatic since, let's be honest, very little is as important as breathing. To me, it's not as important as breathing. I rarely go more than a minute without breathing (how long's the average stadium course? >;-P) yet I have, on occasion, gone months without riding - and survived! To me, it's like the perfect summer day. Where it's the ideal warmth -- that you're comfortable being outside but not melting in the sun. When the sky is so blue, if it were in a photo you'd assume it had been inexpertly touched-up since nature never reveals colours that pure. With just the occasional super fluffy cloud riding a gentle breeze passing buy. When you get to experience one of these days, it doesn't mean that everything in the world is instantly right. What it does mean is that the bad stuff doesn't seem *quite* so bad. Life is just a little lighter -- the focus shifts from the petty annoyances to the little things that are good. These kind of days are not necessary to survival -- in Canada we regularly go months without experiencing them -- but when they occur, they make the quality of life so much better. For me, the horses do the same thing. In the times that I haven't ridden, I've missed it of course, but life fills up the time and the money gets spent on other things and you don't really realize there's anything wrong. Until the day you end up back at the barn. And suddenly everything seems so right. And you can't help but smile. Like stepping off a plane onto a Caribbean island in February. Suddenly, the world is just that little bit better, stress is easier to deal with, frustration lessens and smiles come faster. That is why. And when you find that thing which does it for you, you'll understand the passion/obsession/addiction (it's amazing how closely those are linked!) and then you'll find yourself struggling to explain to others "why". And as for teaching? Well that's easy -- it's all about the lightbulb moments. That moment, when you see the light go on, when your student *really* gets it for the first time, and realizes just how different "it" is from what they've always had, that is why. Sometimes I think I'm more excited about these than the student :) hahaha Have had a few of those in the last couple weeks, n it's just the most amazing thing to see. Or there's this version of why...: "Mucking stalls allows me to enjoy clarity of purpose. And at least I know when I've stepped in the sh*t. At work, I don't know that sometimes until I'm knee deep in it." hahaha sounds about right to me :) This video was just too much fun not to share. Enjoy! - Pony Prix What I wouldn't've given to do this as a kid.