Dreams

So tonight was interesting for me. I went to a horse auction, which isn't a big deal. I was asked to ride a horse through the sale for a lady, and for a few bucks, I thought, why not? It's kind of my job if you think about it. It was fun for me though. I rode this paint horse (who had no spots and an arabian head) who hadn't been ridden in several months, and that I'd never met before in my entire life. So we get him to the sale and I just hop on, like it was no big deal! Can you believe me? I am that ... dumb!! To just hop on a horse that I don't know!! Ha, it's my job and I love it!! So this horse was cool, stubborn and sassy, but cool. I worked with him a little, walked him around the barns... and finally I decided that it would be better if I just tied him up and let people look at him. So I go tie him up... and I see someone I know. An old friend that I used to ride with at the stable that I first learned to ride at. I was excited to see a familiar face that I hadn't seen in forever. In this excitement I went over and struck up a conversation. We talked about the here and now...and how things are. This friend used to tell me what she wanted to be when she got out of school. She went to school for equine science. She wanted to have a horse farm, training western pleasure horses, showing the circuits. And when we parted ways years ago, I wasn't sure where she was going to go with her horse career. But tonight I found out and it made me stumble over myself a bit. It gave me a stronger desire to accomplish my goals. I was talking to my friend, and she was selling two of her three horses. I asked "for how much" and she said "make me an offer". She was going to take whatever for them, just to get rid of them. I continued to ask questions to figure out how her horse career had been going... because I felt like something wasn't right. Come to find she was selling the arabian because she's too small. That's a good reason, if the horse is too small, there's not much you can do with it. She was also selling a big, good sized, nice looking appaloosa gelding. When I acquired as to why she was selling him she said "I bought a trained quarter horse" . That really didn't answer my question... but with further investigation I found out that the gelding is difficult to get on... he tends to bolt when you get on. He's green broke and doesn't know much. Needs some training. I thought to myself "So why not just train him?" - then the memory came back to me that this girl was never the "just get on and hold on" type... she was more of the "ride as long as every thing goes the way I want it to". Training the bad horse was never her speciality. Then after a little more talk, the truth came out... she said "my husband has put his foot down and has told me that I can only have ONE horse". And her, being the way she is, chose the one that suits her best. The well trained western pleasure quarter horse. I suddenly had a heart ache for this girl. She used to dream of a horse farm that produced well trained western pleasure horses. And now she is settling for one quarter horse... that was trained by someone else... riding it around the farm... not going after that once upon a time dream. As I was talking to her I sensed that she had lost something... her ambition, her drive, her passion... it wasn't there tonight when I talked to her. She lost the dream!! At first I wanted to blame the husband for not letting her dream and go for it. But reality is that if her passion wasn't deep enough... than her dream meant nothing to her. It was sad to see. It got me to thinking about me and my dreams. You know, I live my dream... every time I get on a horse! Tonight, riding that horse for that lady - that's my dream. To just ride horses for people and make my living at it. Of course I want to take it to another level... of becoming good at it and well known... and showing and going to the top!! It's my passion, it's my sport, it's my love, it's my dream!!! And I'm going to school for it in March and I'm soooo pumped up about it. Because that's just another step towards my dream coming true. Tonight, having talked to my friend and watched her practically give her horses away... I saw a person who lost her dream... it showed on her face and she proved it in her talk... for me, losing my dream would be like losing my life!! It's what keeps me going. Dreams... don't let them slip away and don't let people take them away either!!