This past weekend was full of experiences for us as a family, as well as our horses.

We just became a horse family in March of 2014.  There has been this longing in our hearts for horses all of these years, but for some reason, we had this idea in our heads that it was way too expensive to own horses.  All of this time, we pushed our desire to be horse owners to the back of our minds and focused on other things.  That longing never went away, though.  Finally, this year we decided to look into it a bit more, and we are so glad that we did.  Not only did we find that horses truly aren’t that expensive, we have come to realize that no matter the expense, you would gladly do for these horses that bring so much joy and happiness into your lives.

We truly had no idea just how much horses heal.

Sure, we knew that we loved horses and enjoyed watching them as they moved in such a fascinating manner displaying grace and power at the same time.  Little did we know how these massive creatures would make their way deep into our hearts where they now reside.  They aren’t just an “expensive hobby” as I’ve heard some uneducated people refer to them.  These gentle giants are a form of therapy!

We embarked on two journeys that were definitely out of our comfort zone this past weekend.  One was having the horses lined up in the Christmas parades in different towns.  Our entire family was delighted when we received the invitation to ride in the parades.  It would have been easy to allow fear to hold us back.  Fear of the unknown.  Fear of what “might” happen.  You know, that all familiar “what if” syndrome that we all suffer from on different occasions.  Still, we decided not to cave into our fears and not to allow our fears to control us.  Instead, we forged ahead and dedicated Saturday as our parade day.

The morning began with getting up bright and early to round the horses up and get ready for the 10 a.m. parade.  We had to get up at 6 a.m. to get everything packed, horses loaded, etc.  Then we were on our way to wait in the line up an hour before the parade was to start.  There were horses all over the place at the first parade, and I’ll admit to feeling a little intimidated at first due to the size of some of those horses.  Then there were horses that really shouldn’t have been out there as they certainly didn’t appear to be tame enough to behave in a parade setting.  Still, the owners must have had more confidence than we all did as they had them ready to line up, too.  Needless to say, we let them go ahead of us so we could bring up the rear in the parade.  We had no problem whatsoever in being last.  Hey, in our minds, they saved the best for last!  Can you tell that we are extremely proud of our horses?

Just as we felt a twinge of intimidation at the other horses initially, it is easy for us humans to feel intimidated by others.  Our horses may feel a bit insecure as well next to other massive creatures, or they can fit right in.  It all depends on the personality of the horses, just as it does on the personalities of humans.  However, take a shy horse and a rider that once felt insecure themselves and pair them together, and watch what happens!  They bond together and make a great partnership.  They know that they depend on each other and their confidence also bounces off of each other.  When the shy horse appears unsure, the insecure rider has to push that insecurity aside and take charge, holding her head up high and shoulders back with such confidence, even if she is faking it until she makes it at first.  Pretty soon, both horse and rider begin to heal each other.  The horse is no longer shy and timid in situations but forges ahead with such grace and confidence in each stride with their partner on their back.  Horse and rider become one, and it is beauty in motion.

We ended up having the best time in the parade!  My ten year old daughter was on her pinto pony in front of me with my husband walking alongside her just in case anything were to happen.

My 17 year old daughter was walking beside me with a bag of candy that she was tossing out to children that lined the streets.  I was sitting proudly on my horse, Sugar.  My husband joked that it wasn’t a beauty pageant or anything, it was a parade.  While that is true, I was allowing my Sugar girl to strut her stuff as I sat perched on her proudly waving and saying, “Merry Christmas” to the little children.  Oh it did my heart so much good when their little faces would light up because someone acknowledged them.  More people should acknowledge the little children and make them feel special, because they are!

One particular thing that stood out in my mind from that first parade is the fact that among those lining the street were children with Down Syndrome.  They all gathered with the sweetest little faces, smiling as big as could be as they looked at us as we started to make our way by them.  My 17 year old daughter walked over and handed them a bunch of candy, and my heart melted right there seeing her being so sweet, kind, loving, and gentle to these children.  She told me later that while she was instructed to toss the candy at the people lining the streets, she could not bring herself to toss candy at the children with Down Syndrome.  I told her she did the right thing by taking it to them and placing it in their hands, looking them in the eyes and smiling softly to them.  I know that she made a difference in their lives that day, even in that brief moment in time.  She touched their hearts, and she touched mine in watching this exchange between them.

The horses that we once feared wouldn’t do that great in the parade actually surprised us all.  They were amazing as we made our way back through the crowded streets, this time unescorted by the police.  Not only were we unescorted, but the police did not even help us across the streets with our horses.  We were on our own at this point.  I’ll admit that I did feel a little anxiety rising up in my chest at the thought of crossing that busy intersection on horseback, but we had to get back to our trailer so this was the only way.  My 17 year old daughter decided she wanted to ride back so I got off of Sugar and let her get on while I walked alongside her this time.  I lead the way through the busy streets, doing hand signals when we were ready to turn, and then the moment came when we were approaching the busiest intersection of all.  Fear could have consumed me and crippled me at that point, but what good would that have done?  We would have been stuck in that congested area with frightened horses, then, as they feel exactly what we are feeling.  Instead, I held my head up high and took up my lane as if I owned it.  I stood right in the middle of the lane right next to other cars that were turning when we were wishing to go straight as soon as the light turned green.  And we walked across that busy intersection “like a boss,” as my daughter would say!  The traffic did not even phase the horses one little bit.  You know why?  Because the rider and handler were calm and undisturbed by the chaos, traffic, and congestion of that busy intersection.  Because we were confident, our horses were, too, and they did wonderfully that morning!

We went on to our second parade where we lined up an hour before the 3 p.m. parade was to start.  This was my favorite of the two that day.  We were positioned behind Santa once again, which was fine as we were bringing up the rear in this parade, too.  The ROTC and the marching bands were in front of Santa, and we got to hear the beautiful music being played.  When once nervous about this, our horses were outstanding once again as the music from the band never spooked them.  They remained calm, just as we were, and I think they enjoyed the parade as much as we did!

There were children lining the streets for this parade, too.  Sugar wore a Santa hat in this parade, though, with me wearing a cowboy hat to match my husband and daughter.  The Santa hat on Sugar was a big hit with the children.  I smiled all the way down to my toes when I would see their little hands cover their mouths as they pointed, giggled and talked about Santa Horse.  People were snapping pictures as we waved and said, “Merry Christmas.”

All in all, it was a wonderful experience venturing out on these horse Christmas adventures with my family this past weekend!  There’s nothing better to get you in the Christmas spirit!