Here's to the Horses | Wyoming Lifestyle Blogger and Photographer

I heard of the passing of an old friend today.  Her name was Sister, and she was one of the childhood horses of one of my childhood best friends.  As I read the beautiful words my friend Lyndi wrote about a horse she got to love for almost three decades, my heart was gripped with both joy and sorrow.  Sorrow for her loss, joy for all the amazing memories that horse allowed Lyndi to have.

I grew up on the back of my own childhood mare, a thin-maned chestnut Appaloosa named Peppermint.  That mare ushered me from tween to adult, listening to my secrets and teaching me a few lessons along the way.  Many a night Lyndi and I spent at the barns with our mares.  We trained in the arena, working on skills like flying lead changes or sliding stops or extended trots.  Other times we hit the trail, seeking solace in open skies and Wyoming sunshine.

The barn, those horses, were our happy place.  Our horses ushered us through some of the most difficult and tumultuous years of our lives.  How blessed that we were able to love and be loved by them.

My favorite part of Lyndi’s story, though, was that she got to share Sister with her own daughter.  Two generations working and loving and learning next to one of God’s most amazing creatures.  I can’t think of anything more wonderful.

Our time with our horses, dogs and cats is always too short.  Peppermint was part of my life for twenty-six years and there are days I miss that big brown face and haughty attitude so much it hurts.

So go for that ride.  Take the awkward barn selfies.  Do a photoshoot with all your horses.  Visit the barn in the waning hours of twilight and just take time to enjoy the gift that you have been blessed with.  And give them a treat for me, in honor of Sister, Peppermint, No Account, Lacy, Empress and all the other guardian angles disguised as horses in this world.  Here’s to the horses.

Teresa