This can apply to almost anything in our lives, but I’m going to direct it at horses.

As we get older, we are supposed to become wiser, but sometimes I wonder if we are getting wiser, more cautious, or just plain paranoid.

When I was younger, getting hurt never crossed my mind.  Now I think twice when I do almost anything dangerous.  What we consider dangerous also changes.  I am more aware, when I’m working around the horses, of situations that could turn ugly at any moment.  They are the same situations I have dealt with all my life, but somehow they now pop up with red flags.

Now I thought that it was just something I was going through, until I saw my girlfriend post the same thought on Facebook.  She was commenting on how she started bringing her girls out to hunt when they were four years old, but that her heart is in her throat about doing that with her one granddaughter.  We never gave it a second thought, until now.  I started my granddaughter riding on my husband spirited Appendix when she was four.  Of course all these children were being ponied by us, but still I look back and think “What was I thinking?”

When I gave lessons back then, I knew that kids bounce and they would be fine.  Now I give it a lot of thought before I do anything.  Maybe it is the whole new way of thinking that lawsuits are the way to go.  In the “Old Days”, you fell off, or did something stupid, it was your fault, no one elses.  What ever happened to being responsible for your own actions?

It’s the same way now when I go to ride.  I question, where is this horses mind today?  If I break something, who will take care of all these animals?  With my husbands bad back, he can’t.  With my osteoporosis there is the possibility, especially since it is in my spine.  But it’s funny, once I get on, all this just disappears from my mind.  I’m so comfortable on my horses that I’m fifteen again, and nothing can stop me.  That’s a good thing.  If you ride with fear, it will happen.

So the question is – Is it wisdom, caution, or being paranoid.  Where is the line between these thoughts?  When do you cross from one to the other?  How do you figure which one it is?  I know with some people it starts earlier in life than mine did.  I think I started to reevaluate situations a few years ago when I got double-barreled, went flying through the air, landed on the salt block, and broke several ribs (13 acres and I land on the salt block).  I just picked myself up, finished feeding and made it in time for church that Sunday morning.  I pretty much knew I had one broken rib, but  when I saw my doctor a few weeks later, he said there were three.  I guess it doesn’t matter how many are broken, you just can’t laugh, sneeze, cough, or move quickly for a few weeks.  As a rule I don’t think much about injuries.  It’s a part of the horse business.  Broke an ankle years ago.  Didn’t know it was broken, just put a horses leg wrap on it and kept going.  Many years after that, when I went for an x-ray for a concussion, they  x-rayed my leg because I had a slight limp when I walked into the doctor’s office.  (I thought it was cramping from sitting in the waiting room.)  It turned out my head was fine, but my leg was broken.  But they made the comment “Oh you broke your ankle a while back.”  My reaction was “Really?  It was broken? How about that.”  So I’m not one to run to the doctor with every lump, bump, bruise, or obviously, a broken bone.

Wise, cautious, or paranoid – it’s up to you to determine what’s behind it, and what you are going to do about it.

So I really don’t have the answer.  I think it’s an individual thing.  I think it’s something that you have to figure out for yourself.  But what I do know is that it’s something you have to decide if you want to deal with it, or let it take over your mind, and your life.

It’s just that simple.