Not everyone holds the same affection for the western lifestyle and horsemanship as I do. If you are one of those people that “just doesn’t get it,” please feel free to stop reading now; this column is probably not for you. But then again, maybe it is; maybe you can translate these feelings to something you hold dear.
When I Am An Old
Horsewoman
(Author Unknown)
I shall wear turquoise and diamonds
And a straw hat that doesn’t suit me,
And I shall spend my social security on white wine and carrots
And sit in my alleyway of my barn
And listen to my horses breathe
I will sneak out in the middle of a summer night
And ride the old bay gelding
Across the moonstruck meadow
If my old bones will allow
And when people come to call, I will smile and nod
As I walk past the gardens to the barn
And show instead the flowers growing
Inside stalls fresh-lined with straw.
I will shovel and sweat and wear hay in my hair
As if it were a jewel
And I will be an embarrassment to all
Who will not yet have found the peace in being free
To have a horse as a best friend
A friend who waits at midnight hour
With muzzle and nicker and patient eyes
For the kind of woman I will be
When I am old.
Now, let me get one thing straight: I do not consider our horses “friends.” I am not the girl that has pictures taken from the saddle captioned “happiest place on earth.” Sometimes I want to kill my horses! Sometimes they do everything that you don’t ask them to and nothing that you do.
However, some of my happiest memories have taken place on a horse. A sweet-heart relationship budded into a marriage, one which I hold in the highest esteem, on the back of a horse.
My challenge for you is this: find your passion, and find it as quickly as possible. There is no worse feeling than knowing exactly how much time you’ve wasted not doing exactly what makes you happy.
Courtesy of Joe Walljasper, the Columbia Daily Tribune When Jill Nagel took
The first Brenda Eskew Memorial Scholarship was awarded this spring to Maryland