Stop and Smell the Horses

Sometimes you just have to stop and smell the horses.

Last week – it was busy to say the least. By midweek, I was already spent and just getting started all at the same time. Preschool, parent-teacher conferences, and pulling bulls early in the week had taken their toll, leaving me feeling out of control and slightly stressed. And I still had a lunch for thirty to fix, a herd to move, and a newly sick kid with a mysterious fever to tend to, and that was just the day ahead.

After I tucked the kids in on Wednesday evening, I headed out to do chores in the dark because I’d lost track of time prepping for my day ahead. My mind was racing thinking about all I had left to do and mapping out how Thursday needed to be done. And if I’m being honest, I was sweating a little over it all. But as I was putting our geriatric horse away, my mind slowed and the sweating stopped.

Nick’s old, and slow, and maybe a little spoiled. He comes in every morning for breakfast. He grazes the little area in front of our house where the grass is more tender and easier for his old teeth to chew during the day. At night, we put him back in the pasture with the herd. And as I ambled along with him at his sloth-like pace back to the barn, I was forced to physically slow down.

As we walked along, I breathed him in. And that sweet, intoxicating smell of a horse slowed my mind as it took me back to a simpler place and time. All at once, I wasn’t thinking about all. the. things. I was a youngster standing in my grandma’s barn with not a care in the world except how fast I could get on my horse and go.

Some might find it weird, strange, or a little bit odd that smelling a horse is what it took to slow my mind and stop the stress sweat. But horses have always been my happy place. They’re where I go when I need to change my frame of mind and get a fresh outlook.

Sometimes, I just need to stop and smell the horses.