Don’t Trust Anyone Over 30

Some of you reading this may be under 30, so bear with me, and many of you that I know, are not.

I remember that saying so well from when I was young.  When we were young we thought that we had it all figured out.  Our parents, of course, were just so behind the times.  What could they possibly know about life today.  They were “Old”.  From a land and time so in the past.  Boy do I wish it was the past again.  Boy do I wish I was young and naive again.  Ignorance really is bliss.

I watched a girl in her mid twenties today speak with such confidence on a problem with one of the horses at her barn.  Symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment.  The vet was not sure what was causing the symptoms, but this girl was undoubtably sure.  The vet was only out of vet school for about a year, and I don’t know how long she has been dealing with the strange things that Florida offers.  I had to admit, I pretty much agreed with the young ladies way of thinking.  She was on the right track.

She was hooking up a trailer for someone, and I told her good job, when she crossed the chains to the hitch.  I said I can see this isn’t your first Rodeo.  She looked at me with those eyes of patience you give to an old person, and I smiled.  I was her at one time.

I was the one who spoke with confidence about anything horse related.  I was well into my twenties also.  Training, jumping, I was on top of my game.  You couldn’t rattle me. I’ve seen this a lot in the younger horse generation.  That is until you meet a horse who doesn’t necessarily play by the rules.  And trust me, there will always be that one horse. Or your favorite horse which comes down with something that you’ve never heard of before.  Or the vet that stands there and tells you they have no idea what your horse got into, but he may not make it.  Then it feels like the rug has been pulled out from underneath you, or you took a direct punch to the stomach and all the breath has been knocked out of you.

I would like to be twenty and feel that confident.  I would like to be twenty again and not have seen so many of my favorite horses and dogs die.  I would like to be twenty again and know what I know now.  BUT – I would never want to be twenty again in reality. There is so much that I wouldn’t want to relive.  I’m glad I had the experiences, and the lessons learned.  Even though some of them were very painful.

Actually I would like to be fifty again.  I didn’t ache so much, I had a fine strong hunt horse, and probably had some of the best times in my life.  The nonsense of childhood was in the past and I was coming to an age where I could say anything and not care what people thought.  After all, I was old and you didn’t have to pay me no mind.

Enjoy every day of your life.  It’s a gift from God.  Even the bad stuff will teach you something.  Then you can look at a confident twenty year old and smile too.

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