Remember all the Fairy Tales when you were a child?  There was always a handsome prince rescuing a damsel in distress.  Why couldn’t these woman just stand up and figure these things out themselves?  I was never really into Fairy Tales.  Give me a good old horse story any day.  “Alice In Wonderland” never made any sense to me, and the “Wizard of Oz” seemed just plain silly.  Like Bob says “I have no sense of humor.”

I received an email last night from the owner of the new mare.  She was telling me about their adventures for the day and how well the mare responded to all the new things in her life, including riding by fast-moving traffic.  Then she said something that caught me off guard.  “I totally agree with you that people and animals come into your life for a reason.  Sometimes we save them, most times we learn from each other and both benefit.”

There is way more to that thought than that.  In the movie Seabiscuit there was a line or two at the end that stood out for me.  I can’t remember the exact words, but Jeff Bridges spoke about how everyone thought they had rescued this broken down small Thoroughbred, when in truth, Seabiscuit had rescued all of them.  The owner who had lost his son from a car accident, and then his marriage.  The down and out trainer, and the jockey who had great potential but a bad temper.  Seabiscuit had brought them all together to form a team that no one could beat.  Another movie with a great line was “Pretty Woman.”  When Julia Roberts is telling Richard Gere about the prince rescuing the princess.  Richard Gere asks her about what happens after the prince rescues her?  Julia Roberts said “she rescues him right back.”

That’s my whole point.  So many of us face the reality that there are a lot of horses that need to be rescued, not to mention dogs and cats.  They face horrible abuse and starvation daily.  We want to save them all.  What we are sometimes unaware of is that they are “rescuing us right back.”

Yes my friend was right that we do learn from each other, but the hidden blessing is that they are rescuing us right back from something we may not even be aware of.

This woman is very sensitive to her animals, most good horse people are.  But I ask you this question – how many of the animals you have rescued have rescued you right back?

Sometimes we save them, and sometimes they need to save us.  Something for you to ponder.