Books in the Barn

A TRIBUTE TO THE HORSE

~ Debbie Louise Fleet

I am honoured by your majesty,

Yet humbled by your grace,

Yours is a world of service,

Masked by a gentle face.

Your strength is undisputed,

You have the power to kill,

but never would you knowingly harm,

Naturally it is not your will.

You carry us to dizzying heights,

With the willingness of a child,

And the innocence of an angel,

Hard to imagine you came from the wild.

You show the purest love,

Even when life for you is hard,

As humans we often spoil the pure,

Our priorities generally marred.

You can be whipped, kicked and hounded,

Yet one can never see a tear,

But we can see it in your spirit,

And your eyes they show your fear.

I can never take for granted,

The gifts you give so free,

So simple yet so intricate,

You ask nothing from the world you see.

To get you to serve your fullest,

We must never hurt or force,

The creature who has won our hearts,

That my friend is you the horse.

On Sunday, we went to "Ride On", which is a therapeutic riding ranch that hosts an event called, "Books In the Barn". The first year we went, it was a small homeschooling group and the kids sat on hay bales and had a horse story read to them, then headed to the crafting room and designed a stick horse out of a mop and a sock (which the girls still play with years later and love). Finally, they went to the barn, met all the horses, gave them carrots and got to groom them a bit. On our way out, we stopped at a Usbourne station and bought way too many books.

We decided to go again this year, but the event has grown so much that it lost a lot of what made it so magical. There were authors, Santa in the summer, raffle tickets and food and the crafts involved stringing plastic beads and chochkey type crafts that seemed to be lacking in heart and the simplicity that we had enjoyed so much the first time.

We still had a good time, though and ended up watching a therapeutic session instead that was in progress for three special needs children. It was awe-inspiring to see the kids with the horses, working with them, loving them, and seeing the horses work their healing magic - you could just see the light in the children growing as they let themselves become *one* with the horses. The smiles and joy evident in these three children was priceless :)

We bought two wonderful books for our ancient history studies this year and headed back to my dad's to visit with the girls great grandmother and grandfather...

Here are a few shots of our day...

Horses are gentle giants that have given so much to so many people. So on Saturday, we gave thanks for our fantastic friends, the happy horses!