Horse Shit

Yep, that's right...horse shit. I wonder if perhaps I could write an entire blog post around the subject of horse shit? The inspiration came from looking at an old photo. That's me sitting on our pony Sherri - and obviously a great deal of that horse shit was created by that sweet little thing. She was with us for several years, basically grew up with us and lived through many crazy adventures. She was a sweet, stubborn and a very special part of our family. Our neighborhood was also quite familiar with our horses through more unusual circumstances. We stored the grain in old metal garbage can containers to protect the grain from moisture and little critters. However, Sherri being the wiz kid that she was, was very keenly aware that garbage cans meant dinnertime. So sure enough, once in a while our horses decided to escape from the pasture and go on adventures through the neighborhood knocking over all of the garbage cans looking for their oats. Quite a brilliant yet funny little pony I must admit. We eventually bred Sherri and she had a filly (a girl) and we'd watch them run together as fast as they could across the pasture with their manes flying in the wind.

We also spent countless occasions crying over Sherri's bad temper and stubborn pony-ish ways. It was almost a daily occasion where my sister and I were either bucked off, or Sherri just decided it was time to go home and took off like a bandit with us holding on for our lives. Yes - so many adventures and lessons learned from that unique creature.

Last but not least, my other fond memories are of her grazing amongst the tall grass with big purple bur weeds stuck all over her main and tail. It was very obvious that she was in absolute pony heaven as she grazed away all afternoon in the sunshine. And so that brings me back ...to horse shit, which I certainly shoveled enough of when I was a kid. Where therein lies the silver lining in an old saying that I heard years ago, "With all the horse shit, there must be a pony in there somewhere." And yes, there was indeed, with all of that horse shit - a sweet, loving, stubborn and perfect pony.