We were horseback, surrounded by hounds with all of our dreams on our shoulders. As we raced the bends of the hill we cut through the crisp clean air, calming the scorching heat that lurched on our backs. My horse and I were galloping like we were leaving the world behind. We came up the side of the hill, and my body was overtaken with chills as I watched the hunt master and her horse Moses blaze their trail in a distant field to my left.
This summer, my internship with The Equestrian Connection and FoxhuntingShop.com changed my life. In a way, I feel like I have come full circle; like this was definitely part of God’s plan for my life.
Ever since I was a small child, I have had an obsession with both dolphins and horses. But I never really encountered either animal. My grandma would spoil me with horse and dolphin paraphernalia. I had a complete dolphin and horse bed set, and for one of my birthdays I got a stable full of horse figurines complete with a stall for each horse with my name engraved on the top. I loved horses.
One evening this summer, we had just worked the horses a lot, so our cool down was a little more extensive. The summer sun was setting perfectly. I still have a vivid recollection of the colors that painted the sky: coral, royal blue, deep purple and the most dominant color, lavender.
As we walked down the gravel road back up to the horses’ paddock, I got lost in the cringing sound of the cicadas, the click-clock rhythm of the horses’ hooves, the dehydration that overtook my body; I felt God right there with me.
Later, we gave the horses their food and began to walk down the side of the hill to spread out the hay for them to have after they ate their grain. The further I walked down, the darker it got. The streams of light dissipated, and the sun dissolved into the horizon. It was suddenly pitch black.
I became still. Before my eyes, lit up like the selfie-and-paparazzi-filled staples center during a concert, were thousands of lightning bugs. I took a deep breath in and could not hold back the tears. I couldn’t help but think to myself that this is what it was like when God created the world.
These feelings are what I can imagine God feels when we pray to and worship him. God created this world so that we could enjoy it.
These summer experiences reminded me that God is working in my life. He is writing a story. He is painting a canvas, and it has more beauty in it than I will ever be able to comprehend. He wants us to take in our surroundings and experience new things. He wants us to find a peace that is unlike anything, something unexpected.
We live in a world that is fully dependent on communication, and I am driven toward a degree that will set me on a path to be fully taken over by the works of communication. Still, there was something about working with horses this summer that challenged me not only physically, but mentally and spiritually as well.
I never thought interning this summer for the local tack shop would have impacted me the way that it did. I met some amazing people: law students, doctors, trainers and marketers. They were all horse lovers. My eyes were reopened to a passion that I had once had. It was like God was waking me up. I felt right. I wanted to run out and change the world. I wanted to tell everyone about what happened to me. I fell into the position at the tack shop because I dared to try something different. I put myself in a situation that most people would say was crazy, and I loved it.
We all have dreams when we are young and most often those dreams are forgotten, but I want to urge people to pursue their dreams while they can. There is nothing more rewarding than trying something that you didn’t think made sense or that you thought you couldn’t do.
My experience with horses gave me so much drive. There is something spectacular about horses that has always drawn me to them; something that has reignited a flame of passion to help out fellow horse lovers, and to lead others to love horses as well. One day, I want to own horses and have even considered finding a way to incorporate horses into my everyday job post-graduation.
God has led me full circle. Once again, like in my childhood, I found peace in horses.