30 days of happiness - day 27

Happiness is:
The smell of horses. I took Cloud for his first walk on the bike trail today. The slower pace of being on foot let me really get a good look at the horses pastured along the trail. The wind is blowing strong again today and we were downwind of my favorite scent - horses and hay. Every time I smell horses, it takes me back to when I was one of those "horsey" little girls, completely in love with everything to do with horses. My biggest dream was a horse of my own, and the few times I went riding was like heaven. I was either dreaming about horses, reading about them or drawing them. I was obsessed with Sam Savitts illustrations that were in many of the stories I read and drew them over and over. I think this book was my favorite, I will never forget Ginny and Mokey.
Standing there today, watching them, listening to the 'woosh' of breath through their nostrils, breathing in their sweet smell, had me thinking about how I used to tie my jump rope to the handlebars and ride my bicycle with 'reins' so it would feel more like horseback, and how every drive through the countryside would have me looking out the window for horses and dreamily picking out good places to ride and logs for us to jump over. I wanted to be a part of a team, my horse and I. Connection and friendship, two beings moving as one. Like the stories I read about race horses, show jumpers, cowboys and plain ole' regular kids and their horses. To me the smell of horses is better than pumpkin pie, freshly baked bread or cookies, campfires, pinion pines, puppy breath, gunpowder or the woods after a rain. It will always take me back to my first love. And knowing that dreams can still come true.

Movin' on down the trail...