Sunday, May 9, 2010

Mouthy Monday

This is a lovely story from www.animageofgrace.blogspot.com. I like the clean, to the point writing.Of course any horse story is good horse story as far as I'm concerned.


I was boarding my Warmblood gelding "Bailey" at a Quarterhorse farm a few miles from my house. A very good friend of mine was helping me rehab him from a reoccurring lameness.

She and the owner of the place took a trip down to Oakdale, California to pick up 4 AQHA fillies. The plan was to train them and resell them to show on the AQHA circuit.

It was fall of 1999 and the horse market was booming.

When the fillies arrived, they were surprisingly small. All 4 of them were different shades of bay and they were half wild. They were well bred, but the owner had fallen on hard times.

The mares had been turned out in large field on a roping ranch. They were barely halter broke and they seem convinced that everyone that came near them had plans to throw a rope over them.

On the way up from California, they were named after the Spice Girls. As the story goes, it was 2am and the ladies that were hauling them kept referring to them as this bay one or that bay one.

Grace's name for her first few years in Washington was "Baby Spice". I don't recommend that you bring it up in her presence!

I was cleaning stalls at the barn to pay for board on my gelding. I was working the night shift at a factory. I had been there for over 4 years and I hated it!

My gelding who I thought was my forever horse kept bucking me off. Riding I thought, was the one thing in life I was good at and now I spent most of my time in the dirt.


My favorite part of the day was going to the barn in the morning to clean stalls. I had to drag myself out of there to get to work on time.


I had a really bad attitude from my job, that I had carried over into my marriage. I was in a very negative place most of the time. I felt like there was a black cloud that followed me everywhere (years later I now know I had created the black cloud).


One rainy morning I had my head down cleaning stalls, with a storm of negative thoughts going through my head. I entered Grace's over sized stall with the manure cart and pick fork, closing the door behind me.


Her stall was trashed, she was a grinder who would step in her manure and grind it into the shavings. I would have to strip all the bedding out of her stall and replace it.


Great, one more crappy thing to add to my day. I put my head down and got to work, ignoring the cute little mare in the corner.


With each fork full of urine soaked shavings, I dove deeper into my angry thoughts. Why did I have such a crappy job? Why couldn't I just ride horses for a living? Why didn't I have all those things? Why did it have to rain here all the time? Why was I so mad all the time? Why me? Why dammit!


Suddenly I felt someone staring at me. I looked up from the brim of my hat and saw too big brown eyes staring back at me. Grace had walked right up to me. She was standing toe to toe with me and was looking right through me.


She lowered her head and put her soft nose right on my chest. She exhaled and looked me right in the eye. As her warm breath washed over me all thoughts fled from my head. I felt the pressure in my chest release. I pressed my forehead against hers and just let go. For the first time in a very long time I was "in the moment". She didn't move, that half wild little mare just stood there and let me hold on for as long as I needed to. That was it, I was hers.

21 comments:

  1. Brilliant! I want the rest of the story!

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  2. Ahhh. What a great way to start my Monday reading this. Lovely story.

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  3. Wonderful! I can already imagine the adventures you two would have.

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  4. Thank you for your story. I was really upset this morning and reading your story really helped me to let go. Thank you.

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  5. Amazing little glimpse into the power of horses. Thank you for sharing, and I hope there's more to the story on your blog!

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  6. Amazing how perceptive animals can be! Great story!

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  7. Lovely story - thanks!

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  8. Darn it Mugs, have you been giving lessons on writing cliffhangers?

    Great story!

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  9. DeeDee (sonnyduo@yahoo.com)May 10, 2010 at 1:39 PM

    Mugs, I know this lovely story was just to hold off your 'starving' readers from demanding more great stories. Good job. Now we have another writer to pursue with requests for more stories. haha! Very clever, Mugs.

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  10. Such a wonderful story!! I'm so glad you submitted it!

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  11. Excellent! A perfect example how a horse chooses you!

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  12. Wow! How awesome to see my post here! Now I will have to keep up on my blog with Grace. She is the love of my life and still the reason I get out of bed every morning.

    www.animageofgrace.blogspot.com

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  13. I've really enjoyed your blog! I hope you don't mind that I've listed you on my blog roll. I also hope that you don't mind that I'm a mule.

    Fenway Bartholomule
    www.BraysOfOurLives.com

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  14. Oh wow, an image of grace, just checked our your blog. Grace is absolutely beautiful. I understand how it is to deal with lameness. Best of luck and good thoughts coming my way to your Grace and you! (your photos are awesome too btw)

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  15. What a sweet story. I agree, I want to hear how it all turns out!

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  16. oh, that gives me goosebumps. How touching! I would love that mare forever!

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  17. wonderful story. This is the first time I've read your blog. I'll be back.

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  18. I read TB Friends, where Joe talked about a horse finding his someone, and then this about the same thing. Awesome synchronicity!

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