After 13 years, the time has finally come to move Danny out to pasture to enjoy the remaining years of his life. This is a bitter sweet feeling for me. I know he will love his time wandering the pastures of Endar but I will miss seeing his face everyday.
In the years we've been together, we've been through quite a bit of trauma. We both had surgery (Danny's splint removed and my surgery to brake my jaw). Danny popped and fractured three splints and tore two suspensory ligaments. I sustained severe pelvic damage from a fall, a broken finger, and two separate stress-fractured legs. And he was poisoned by another trainer while at a horse show. We've also seen our ultimate highs. Together we won equitation medals, gamblers choice classes, hunter rounds, and jumper classics. We rode with the great George Morris. We've pretended to be the "Man from Snowy River" on trail and even visited the McDonald's drive-thru. One of the best feelings ever was hearing spectators at the horse shows say, "Oh look! There's that Show Me The Money horse!" I was so proud!
Danny has taught me more about life than I could ever learn from a book, classroom, or human mentor. He taught me patience, trust, gratitude, happiness, humility, humbleness, and love. Most importantly, he taught me how to ride. No two rides were the same on Danny...ever. He gave me his heart in every ride but the variance was always his attitude, ADHD nature, and playfulness. It was always up to me as to how I was going to use these "talents" to put forth a great ride and not a total disaster.
So here I am. Counting the days till I get to see him again, hear his nicker, and scratch his neck. I tell people it's like sending your child off to college and putting your parent in a nursing home all at the same time. I'm moving onto the next chapter in my life with some inner struggles but I know it is "for the best."
No comments:
Post a Comment