We all have our great loves. For those who open your hearts, you will have many loves and those loves may also become great ones. You are the lucky ones for it took me a long time to believe that love (and good things) were infinite that the bucket it filled was deep and ever flowing - so much that you could have all that you wanted and there was still more to be had, to be shared and to be freely given.
This post has been haunting me for so, so long... And when I think that this blog's entire existence started with my beloved Sugar and all that went into loving a wild thing and all the living and healing that comes with it, writing this is hard. Sugar was my great love and I had her for a memorable ten years... a memorable ten years.
Those memories make me smile even if once when talking to a PTSD therapist, she felt that I was in an an abusive relationship. Most of my injuries were due to freak circumstances, not her fault, I should be a better rider, etc. I think she saw a patttern.
Sugar, god rest her soul, is still with me. I'm not talking about her spirit or a ghost but that accumulation of energy around the spooks, spins and injuries. It is not her fault nor do I ever want to say that I didn't love owning her and that I still miss her but I carry the scars of those things that no longer exist.
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| Happy Young Professional Riding |
The haunting is in my own head. When I head out for a trail ride with a friend, I have to remember, Shanti is not Sugar. In her most animated, Shanti just gets big - 18H+ and launches into a military march forward. When she spooks, she moves to the side and then stops to look at what scared her. I can canter in a field and that is all she does, waiting to see if there is more.
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| Happy Young Professional Hunting Shanti |
Shanti is more anxious about poles on the ground than she is of anything on, under or around a jump. They are just things to get over and wow, getting over them is fun for her.
And yet, I wonder when will I finally let go of my beautiful ghost? When will I get on, do something new or jump a jump without thinking "what will make her spook?" Will I ever enter the warmup and not look for the thing that will cause an explosion and will I ever enter a ring thinking, how do we make this brilliant vs trying to get through the test quietly?
Sug, I love you and our life together was most spectacular. I will never ever forget you, for your place is deep in my heart. What I am going to do is remove your place in my brain... not our memories or adventures but all that stuff that an anxious "master" (old) rider stores up to release at inopportune moments.
And letting go is not about less but about allowing more, allowing Shanti and I to build memories and have adventures ghost-free. For all loves never go away but continue to accumulate into ever expanding love...
