Saying goodbye never gets easy…

Last day of winter break, and it was time to say bye to my family, my friends, and my horses. I was kind of used to leaving now, and understood that saying bye is not permanent, but it is never easy to do. As I walked away from the sweet smelling barn, I sat outside for a moment; kissing my horses warm soft muzzle, I felt sad to leave him. I did not want to say goodbye…

I took a breath, realized it was time to go looked back and saw his soft eye. He knew it was time for me to go, I could tell, and it was just as hard for him to watch me walk away. I used to see him and ride him every day, but now I am lucky to see him every 2months. I guess this taught me that saying bye is not easy.

I think about Archoman each and every day. He has taught me life lessons, lessons that no one else could seem to teach me. Perhaps because the communication between a horse and their rider is unexplainable. I learned balance, love, and trust from him. When I was younger I often would stress about perfection, but my horse made me realize perfection was not necessary or realistic. Maintaining balance in life, and finding happiness was what would bring a life worth living.

“It is not enough for a man to know how to ride; he must know how to fall” this quote highlights the concept that when you fall, you must get back up. Riding taught me how to make mistakes, and how to cope with them. It taught me that if you want to improve as a person you must make mistakes, because you learn most from them.

“Well, I think that part of being young is not exactly knowing why you do some of the things that you do. And it’s by exploring your life or experimenting or making mistakes and learning from them hopefully that you start to forge an identity.” This quote by Stephen Chbosky resonates with me. It describes a belief I have always had.

Finding out who I am, creating an identity is something I choose to work on every day. Change is present, and change can be very difficult, but it is something to except and grow from; I think I learned to cope with change, with mistakes, and with challenges from my horses. They taught me that this happens, and the best thing you can do is get back up and try again. No one is going to hold your hand throughout every part of life.

A horse is more than an animal, a horse is a best friend, a life-long friend. There are friends you have for a season, some for a reason, and those you have for a life time. Horses definitely fit the lifetime category. I learn something from them every day even if they are not physically present they have something to teach me in spirit.

One thought on “Saying goodbye never gets easy…

  1. I have never been close to horses, but I could always understand why people who own them/ ride them have a big emotional attachment to them. This post confirmed that!
    When I left home to start my second semester here, it was also very hard for me to know that I would not be seeing my cat and dog for four months. People say cats are selfish and that they do not have a high capacity to love, but this is definitely false. It is hard to be away from your pets, especially when you are used to being with them every day.

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