Horses

[horseman]

Sitting here this morning drinking coffee lookin' out the window musing about things and thought I would share something with you all. Christmas day the local Veterinarian, who's a good friend of mine, drove up to the place to wish us a Merry Christmas. Very thoughtful of him. Haven't seen much of him for a while as I don't drop by the clinic much anymore, covid for one. Started snowing while we were talking, which is a bit late for here, and he remarked "didn't you used to take a ride on Christmas day"? Yeah, I did. Well, we ended up with about 6 inches of snow in just a couple hours so I thought I'd just go plow the drive (about a mile) and it takes a couple passes, all in all 3-4 hours. Just me and the Missus here for Christmas and she was busy so not much else to do. I was bored. I keep all my tractor attachments out in the "new" barn where I used to store hay so ran the tractor out there, (I keep the tractor in the shop by the house) dropped the bucket, hooked up the hydraulic plow, only takes a few minutes. After backing the tractor out of the barn It hit me how lonely it seemed out there. Quiet, bare, empty. Just sat there awhile lookin' around with a lump in my throat. It's been about a year and a half since I got rid of my horses. Might seem a bit strange to some, but Damn, I miss em'.

[Ranch Dog]

I sure enough understand. Heck, if I were to get rid of my dog, I'd be miserable.

[oscarflytyer]

I ALWAYS wanted horses, and always swore once I gout out of the Army, then after kids (5 boys!) were gone, I WOULD have a cpl. Just got too late and at my age (58) we decided we didn't want to get tied to not being able to travel and RV a bit/when we wanted, due to being anchored to animals, and all the upkeep. Wife wanted horses too, and her dream was always to raise and train dogs - and she would be AWESOME at it (and horses too)! But we decided farm/country/acres/animal upkeep just wasn't as desirable as we thought it might be.

Instead of moving out/buying acreage to do all that, we bought/built in a small neighborhood. It is out a bit, which is really nice. Corn/bean fields behind/around us, least for now. We are enjoying it. Wife is still able to buy/rehab/redo houses (she loves it), I help, and she is getting to do it with a cpl of the boys. And a HUGE bonus is son #3 is now married and 12 houses away and expecting our first grandchild. THAT is REALLY what the wife wanted! It is very interesting how your goals change.

And, for the record, I AM glad I never had horses, or I am SURE I would miss them terribly! I miss being around them.