I have always been grateful to have horses in my life. My horses and the horses at the barn were my friends when I struggled throughout my school years, they were my buddies and never broke up with me when I got dumped by high school boyfriends or had a relationship drama. When my world got complicated with college, graduate school and becoming an adult, horses were simple and brought me back to my center.

Horses taught me most of the lessons I learned about life and for that I am grateful. They taught me nothing comes without work and that you have to have discipline and focus. They taught me about being a gracious winner and even more important, about being a gracious loser.

I am grateful for my relationships with horses because they center me. Horses can let me know when I am too much into my head, thinking or worrying too much. But when I am happy about other things in my life, they feel happy for me as well. It is true, we can project our feelings onto horses, but the truth is that they project onto us. It is that projection, for me, the horse’s sense of centered, simple calmness that I treasure and am grateful for in this fast paced, crazy world.

Gratitude is a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation. People who have the feeling of gratitude are more positive, happier and more healthy. It’s hard to be grateful when there are challenges in our lives, but I have learned through being aware and in the moment, in the NOW, that finding one thing to be grateful for can change your attitude and how you are seeing a situation. Dr. Wayne W. Dyer says, “When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.”

Being a part of a horse community in this fast paced world is a very special opportunity. It offers a slice of nature, and allows us to step back from our busy electronic lives and reconnect by touching animals, or objects such as horse’s coats and wooden stall doors. Staying connected to ourselves, to our loved ones, to nature and to animals is very important to everyone’s continued mental and physical quality of life.

I am grateful this holiday season for the opportunity to be around horses and to find a place where I can reconnect.

Kristi Seymour
General Manager
Bergen Equestrian Center

Posted by jenniferd at 7:10 PM | Link | 0 comments