Thankful

Knowing that I am planning to spend most of tomorrow either eating or riding my horses, I want to take a minute to post the quintessential thanksgiving post.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year:

Fox Point Farm, in all of it's glory:

The farm has challenged me and changed me; I don't know if I can ever happily go back to boarding. There is something so satisfying about having my horses home to micromanage and laugh at and enjoy. As much as I miss sleeping in or coming home from work and becoming one with the couch, I am learning to live more actively and accountably because I have so many more things depending on me, alone, than ever before.

I am also thankful I have a spouse who (sometimes grumpily) enables me to live my childhood dream, and who embarked on a summer of hellish projects and didn't divorce me from stress. He may not love it like I do, but I appreciate him understanding what it means to me.

Favorite wedding photo is always appropriate

I am thankful for Arya, who is a challenge and a joy. It's fun to have so much young, spirited energy in my horse life again, and it's fun to realize that my #feralredhorse is finally my rock, and much less feral than she used to be. I'm thankful for both of them, for their mooching silly faces and their hay feeder throwing. For their squinty blinks when I flip on the lights at 5 am and for the way they peek around the corner of the barn when they hear me out with the dogs. I'm thankful for BB's love of the jumps, and Arya's love of running, and the joy they share with me when we do the things they were born to do.

I am thankful, and still dreadfully miss my Foxie. I am thankful I got to bury her at home, and thankful I got so many amazing years with her kind, forgiving soul. I am thankful for the years of media that let me remember her as she should be remembered, and not how it ended. I am thankful for the blue ribbons we won, the tears she let me cry into her mane and for teaching me so many important lessons.

Miss you, Foxmare. Love you. 

I am also thankful for my other kids, who are ridiculous and a source of humor and love every single day:

They're going to form a boyband, based on this picture.

Cheesily enough, I am so thankful for you guys. Knowing someone was listening when I was falling apart or losing my mind has value that I cannot express. 

And thankful for that bracelet, that reminds me of an amazing horse and amazing kind people every day

So, thanks, you guys. It's been a hell of a year, and I'm happy I had a place to write it all down to remember it all. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled insanity (and probably a lot of Black Friday shopping) soon. 

<3