My Mom’s Horses

I got this picture yesterday of my mom and my daughter riding their horses together for the first time.

I feel proud of my mom and so thankful for her and I feel just happy for her when I see this photo. My mom always wanted horses. She had them for a while when I was a girl, but they were sold for one reason or another- I’m not sure of the order of events or the specifics, but it’s not important. My point is that I know she always wanted those horses, and it isn’t like she grew up on horses, so I imagine it might have felt like a silly little dream, but still when the opportunity presented itself about 20 years after our first horses were sold, my mom got herself some more horses to ride with her granddaughters.

She took months to find the right people to teach her to find the right horses, and hired a team to build a fence and a loafing shed, and then she had to have an emergency hip-replacement completed right around the time she was ready to bring her horses home. So she got the new hip, and rehabilitated the surrounding body parts, and then went back to work full-time, and brought home the horses, and then one of the two mares needed more support than expected, so she found the right support for her, and also started taking riding lessons at 57 years old!!! (She just goes after work, with her two replaced hips. How cool is that?)

So then after all the above, my mom picked up my girls yesterday for their weekly sleepover with Grammy, and for the first time, she and my 4 year old rode Bella and Roxy together! I know it was a dream for both of them.

Maybe this anecdote feels silly to you, reader, but to me this little horse ride makes me proud of my mom because life has not always gone the way she wanted it to, and I think it can be uncomfortable to keep pursuing new things as we get older, and it’s easy as a woman to not take up time and energy and money to just do stuff that makes you happy!! It is easy to feel silly trying new things, or wanting to make a dream a reality, and to just maintain status quo instead. I know buying horses isn’t an option for most of us, but maybe it’s an option to start taking long walks or cooking a new food, or trying something else to get you one step closer to the exact life you’ve always wanted for yourself.

Thanks Mom, for being an awesome example to my girls and me. Despite many curveballs life has thrown you, you’ve found new ways to make life fun for you and for us (remember how you let my friends and me paint quotes and pictures directly on my bedrooms walls? That you had already painted bright purple for me???) Through many chapters of life, you’ve always given me the impression that you fucking love being my mom. I love you!