Every year on December 13, equestrians throw a celebration for the important horses in their lives for National Day Of The Horse.
My horses aren’t a big fan of celebrations unless it comes with unlimited treats – an amount that they can’t have – so instead I’m giving an ode to all of the horses who I’ve been around with 13 ways they’ve impacted my life.
1) Helping Me Walk Better – This is probably the most important one from a living my best life standpoint. I have Cerebral Palsy and spent quite a while in braces and struggled to walk when I was younger. Riding strengthened a lot of my muscles and took my CP more to a “mild” state so I could live a normal(er) life. Because of this, you’ll often hear me preaching the gospel of hippotherapy if the topic comes up.
2) Friendships – Nearly all of my friends were made either directly or indirectly because of horses. Most are horse people themselves, but even those who aren’t were made because of horses. My non-horsey college friends where made because I chose to go to an agriculture university. My friends growing up were made either because we rode together or they had an interest in horses. Most of my friends made since college can also be traced back to horses in some way.
3) Traveling – Many of the trips out of my home area in my adult life have been because of some sort of horse event. My summer trip to Chicago for many years was because of the Arlington Million. My almost yearly trips to Texas and Oklahoma also are horse-based. My trip to England in 2018 – 100% centered around something I was invited to due to my equine background. Without horses, it’s likely I wouldn’t have traveled to most places I’ve been.
4) Moving to a New Country – This could fall under that traveling category but moving is a bit more intense. Because of the connections I made thanks to horses, I was able to move to Australia for eight months to experience a new culture. During that time I not only learned a lot about horses but also about myself.
5) Mental Health – After not realizing how important mental health is until it directly affected me, my mental health is something I put above nearly all else now. There are few things that help me accomplish this as much as being around horses. A trip to the track to watch horses work in the morning can improve my mood tremendously as can driving around farms.
6) Bring Out My Creative Side – I’m not always the most creative person when it comes to normal tasks. Figuring out how to best organize a room? No go. Writing a non-horse piece? That can take me weeks. But put an equine topic or even an equine in front of me and my brain goes wild. That has translated into getting a more creative with other non-equine tasks, though none as much as when there’s a horse.
7) Fitness – I will fully admit that I am lazy when it comes to staying in shape. But add a horse into my life and I’m at the gym nearly every day so I can be in the best shape possible to ride them well. Now that I think about it … maybe that’s a good reason to buy a new horse.
8) How To Budget – I admittedly still struggle with this one but from an early age, horses taught me how to budget so I could afford horse shows. When I became an adult, that skill came in handy when I had to afford boarding and feeding two horses. While I only have one low maintenance horse 2,400 miles away now, that budgeting has come in handy for every day things. Now if only teachers had taught me this skill in school …
9) Math – I’m not lying when I say I was horrible at math until I started relating it to horses – after I graduated. Math kept me from getting a 4.0 in college (I’m still bitter) and was something I couldn’t understand, even with help. Horse racing came to the rescue here. Those fractions I struggled with are much easier when I can relate them to the distance of a race. The metric system was the bane of my existence in school. Now because of foreign racing I can tell you how many meters are in a mile. As an added bonus, I can also tell you how many pounds are in a stone thanks to having to understand jockey weights!
10) How to Be My Own Doctor– Note when I say this I’m not advocating trying to solve all equine issues without a vet or human issues without a doctor. But I’ve learned enough through the years to be able to handle small issues. I still lean on medical professionals of both types but if they can’t get out there quickly or I can’t get an appointment, there are many things I can handle.
11) Confidence – Throughout my life horses have helped me build a lot of confidence. This was a major help when I was coming back from a health issue last year. My confidence was shot due to many different things and I questioned pretty much everything I thought I knew. But fact checking information I knew about horses and seeing it was indeed correct was a big boost to me. Honestly, that confidence carried over to my non-horse life when dealing with doctors and others who I would have been terrified to stand up to only months before.
12) Test Subjects – I’m not sure if my horses would actually agree with this but because of them I became a better photographer. My first attempts at photography largely included them and today I use Crystal as a test subject. If I think of something I want to try and its close to a time when I’m traveling back to Washington, I’ll try it on her (note she doesn’t always cooperate with this plan). She also features prominently in Pyrois Media’s birthday and Christmas shoots because she is a much better face of the company than me!
13) My Career – This one is a no-brainer but without horses, I have no idea what kind of job I’d have. Even before heading off to college I knew that I’d end up doing something with horses, even though I wasn’t sure exactly what. While my career ideas to do went down a few non-equine paths through the years, it always returned back to something in the equine industry. Looking back now, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have stayed in any of those other industries long term – I probably would have made my way back to horses.
All in all I am extremely privileged to be around horses and have the opportunities I’ve had. As everyone knows, horses are always teaching you new things so I can’t wait to see what they have in store for me before their holiday rolls around next year!