I was cleaning stalls today and my mind just wanders.  Actually my mind wanders all the time.  Not going there.

I might have mentioned (because I was really cranked) that I got a call from my insurance company several months ago.  They told me that I would be much healthier if I exercised a half an hour a day.  Ten minutes of stretching, ten minutes of walking, and ten minutes of gardening.  Hello!  That’s a vacation!!!!!  They really don’t know their customers.  Just because you get a Senior Drink at Taco Bell doesn’t mean you sit on your porch and rock all day.  I’d like one of them to come and spend a day with me, I’ll show them exercise.  Ten minutes of stretching.  How about unloading a half a ton of grain.  Gardening?  How about shoveling some fertilizer into a wheel barrel (multiple times) and then depositing it somewhere out in the pasture.  And of course walking.  Let them try to catch a horse in a ten acre pasture on a hill, who really doesn’t want to go riding, then we can discuss walking.  (Oops, Soap Box Time.)  I do rehash things that bother me while I’m mucking.

Did you ever think about how many times you brushed a horse in your life time?  How many stalls you have cleaned?  How many water buckets you have filled?  How many times you’ve actually ridden your horse?  How many different horses you have ridden?  How many times you have fallen off?  There are many statistics out there, but I never saw these listed.  If you board, many of these don’t apply, but I’m sure you can relate to some of them, and be thankful that you don’t have to do the rest.

There’s a Tee Shirt/Sweat Shirt that sums it up nicely.  In large bold letters it says : I RODE – ALL DAY.  Now between I Rode and All Day it says:   I RODE (Well actually, I fed, turned out, mucked stalls, swept the aisle, filled waters, fixed the fence, brushed horses, cleaned tack, then realized it had taken) ALL DAY.

It’s funny, we focus on time that we spend doing other things and how long they take, but we never count the hours spent with our horses.  They are just a bonus in our day.  Of course the day still goes somewhere, but when we finish with the barn chores, we feel a good tired.  A peace that you can’t explain.  You walk away from the barn with clean, newly bedded stalls, buckets washed out, and aisle way swept.  You smell really bad, but the barn smells of fresh bedding and hay.

Just thinking – Life is good.