Old picture of my horse 'Bill' - Saddled up for a ride.
I’m finally home from work after another unremarkable day. I think I am in desperate need of a carreer change.
My job is not all bad though, while I am waiting for customer’s to finish menial tasks over the phone, I often have the opportunity to let my mind wander. Today my mind wandered far enough to get me thinking of my horses back home. I realised that one of the activities I enjoy most (more than I can put into words) is actually a form of slavery – Horseriding…. 
I grew up on 12 acres, and my mother was a horse fanatic so I guess you could say horseriding is part of my blood, and I took to it like a fish takes to water. It is difficult to describe the immense rush of feelings that I get from riding my horse. Sure it is fun to ride a motorbike, but there is nothing quite like experiencing the mental bonding that is created while on a horses back – to feel the power contained in their muscles and listen to their breath as I gallop up our favourite hill makes me feel so incredible that it is difficult for me to describe.
The question is – does the experience make my horse feel the same way?
If only I could read his mind, or, he talked like ‘Mr Ed’.
I do know that he loves me as a ‘dominant’ herd leader, and being the social animal he is, he is the first (out of our 3 horses) to greet me when I walk into the paddock. He is affectionate, and seems to be happy as long as he has company. He loves to be cuddled and to have his ears scratched. However does he willingly want to go riding with me, or does he just do it because he has been forced over all the years to accept it?
Whenever I go riding at home, he seems to enjoy galloping up a nearby hill (he tends to misbehave and get quite restless if I don’t let him do it), but again, perhaps I am mistaking this behavior for a habit that I have trained into him – (it is something I made him do repeatedly for many years as a child).
Either way, I am now at an ethical crossroads, and have to decide what I should do . The thing is, if I stop riding him I will no longer be a hypocrite, yet this also means that I will be giving up an activity that I have been doing since I was 4 years old, an activity that I thoroughly enjoy.
Ohh decisions decisions…
On a side note, I have noticed that Richard Dawkins is now following me on Twitter – which put a smile on my face 
Anyway, time to go, the husband has made me a delicious dinner, which unfortunately is far more tempting to me at the moment than my blogging…
Have a good evening/morning/afternoon depending on wherever in the world you are.
1azylizzie x
