A horse named Roy

And a demonstration of courage

Some of you may know that I grew up on a horse farm in northern Illinois. It started out small with just my mom having her Appaloosa named Freckles. Then my parents built an indoor riding arena added 12 more boarding stalls and then the hard work really started. The winters in Illinois during the 70’s were not very kind - tons of icy storms and snow storms that produced feet (not inches) that froze ponds and lakes. The work to keep these horses alive during the winters could be difficult.

I remember putting on the snowmobile suits , gloves, hats and boots. Grabbing the shovel to make a path from the back porch door to the barn door. Carrying buckets of hot water from the house to the barn to try and thaw the trough out . Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Our family, mostly my mom, was responsible to feed and water these animals twice a day. This hard work cured me from the “glamour” of owning horses during my adult life.

A few days ago my book club took to the stables to ride after reading a true story about a 63 year young woman, who in 1954 rode her horse across the country from Maine to California. The name of that book is “The Ride of Her Life” by Elizabeth Letts. More than 16 months later & 5 thousand miles she arrived in the San Fernando Valley. She was poor and unwell when she started this journey but that didn’t stop her. She traveled on 3 different horses with basically nothing except her dog. She was helped along the way by good people that were generous with their food, lodging and encouragement. Upon her arrival in California she was being followed by newspapers, authors, and TV personalities. Eventually she returned to Maine (by bus this time) she lived out her days until 1980 when she passed. This is a quote from the book that I believe sums up her courage and hopefully encourages us to have the strength and desire to take chances and make new friends that will help us on our journey through life.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. -Helen Keller