"emoticons!"

Looking back this week and reflecting on my horseman journey I am reminded about how horses, mine and those that I have the privilege to play with, mirror our emotions. The fact that horses don't and can't lie causes me to look at the horse in whatever emotional state they may be in and realize that I can cause their emotional state to get calmer or more turbulent.

When we got our first horse for our daughter and they took her off the trailer, I swore we just bought a dinosaur ( Like one dinosaur wasn't enough, but that dinosaur was pregnant!!!) and I was stricken with fear....and so the journey began.

During this journey of 20+ years I have become very aware of my emotions. Continually working hard to gain emotional fitness. First by being aware of what I am feeling, second by realizing that a feeling is not good or bad, right or wrong...it's just a FEELING! I don't need to judge my feeling. I need to embrace it, understand it and deal with it. I get in trouble the most with my feelings when I try to pretend they're not there. It's not real. It will go away. Sometimes I'm even embarrassed by my feeling.

As I play with horses different emotions show up.....I now love this.....my horses show me where I need work....and boy do I need work! I take time to process what is going on inside me. My emotions sometimes surprise me. I might feel angry at the horse because sometimes they just want to do things to see what we will do with it.....and then I try to smile and look at them and say in a very fun, playful voice "nice try" LOL

I love that the emoticons that are set before me are such awesome, beautiful creatures!

" )