It's the Little Things...

Sometimes, as with life in general, it's the seemingly trivial moments that give us the most pleasure with our horses. I was reminded of this recently during my trip to get Irish from Babette at Gathering Farm.  There, I re-connected with Ashley Ireland, a delightful young lady (from Maine) who began working for Babette last summer.  Ashley was not able to come to Aiken with us, but joined Babette a few weeks ago to be her barn manager at Gathering Farm. 

 I know Ashley from photographing her for many years and watched her develop into a lovely rider/eventer.  The last photos I took of Ashley and her mare Dream, were from Snowfields H.T. 2007.  Sometime after that, Dream sustained the dreaded suspensory injury and was laid up until a few months ago (sorry Ashley if I'm not totally correct on the timing).  As with so many horse injuries, Dream's recovery must have seemed like a very long road filled with worry/dread that she might not be able to event again.  It's times like these, after an injury, accident or otherwise bad ordeal, that we are most likely to experience and really appreciate the "Little Things" with our horses.

 Ashley got the green light to proceed with Dream's rehab this winter. When I pulled into Gathering, she gave me a big hug and a review of her year. She was bubbling and ecstatic and SO excited with each step of Dream's progress.  A few weeks ago she started Dream back over ground poles and with giggles and laughter related how difficult it was to contain her mare's enthusiasm (wanting to leap over the poles). You would have thought Ashley was talking about her first ride at Rolex.  The next day (of my visit at Gathering), the ground poles became X-bars. When Ashley described the lesson one would think this was her first time jumping and they were flying over 5 foot oxers!  Hopping over the little jumps was just so much fun!!  With her super-positive attitude, I have no doubt Ashley and Dream will be tearing up the XC courses in no time!