RDP Thursday: Farm

long-horse-faceFarm, that’s an interesting one. Farm? It’s been a really long time since I’ve been to a farm. The last time I spent much time on one was when I was in third grade. We took a week long trip and lived in yurts while we worked on and learned about living on a farm. It was interesting. We learned about milking the cows, making butter, and many other things, I’m sure. We did a lot of interesting things at my school, a Waldorf school. Waldorf schools generally teach by doing/experiencing, so we saw and did many exciting things throughout the years. In 4th grade we studied all about the history of our state, and therefore we took our class trip to a ranch in the mountains, where we hiked, learned about the mountain men, made items by hand, and stayed in an old style bunkhouse!

 

All of those things aside, the very first thought that popped into my mind when I read the word farm on the rdp site, was thinking about when my boyfriend and I went trail riding. He had never been before, and I hadn’t been in over a decade, but I loved it. It was magical! I want to do it more and more often. My horse, Smoke, was so sweet and responsive. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. The other horses in the corral may have gotten a little jealous because I gave him lots of pets and love. In fact, the horses that hadn’t been on the ride immediately trotted over, happily, when they saw the post ride nose rubs that he got. It was such a special experience! I could truly go on and on and on about the whole experience and how much it meant to me, but I won’t bore you with all of the details. I will say this: the serenity, the green grass, the quiet, the wide open spaces, the beauty of the forest, the space to breathe, to think, and to just be, was incredible. Whenever I get stressed now, I think back about how it felt to have the room to be with these majestic animals out under the beautiful sky, while enjoying the experience with my love made me feel liberated on the inside. I’ll never forget it. It was life changing, and I recommend that everyone should have the chance to experience this.

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Ragtag Daily Prompt Sunday: Surprise

Surprise! I love surprises! Do you? I’m curious! Just this weekend I received a wonderful gift from a very special love in my life! You see, I’m an artist living in NYC and loving it, but I miss my roots, too! I grew up in the mountains of Colorado, so I’m an outdoors girl, too! It’s so beautiful there…and here, too, in different ways. Well…recently it was my birthday…and he surprised me with the BEST gift of all…a trail ride in the Shenandoah Valley!!!!!!!!! I haven’t been on a horse in over a decade. I’m not even a regular rider, or anything, but I LOVE them. I LOVED IT! IT WAS MAGICAL! HE WON MAJOR POINTS FOR THAT ONE! The horse was amazing, so gentle and responsive to my commands. The guides were incredible (seriously, River’s Bend Ranch, they’re awesome), and the experience was excellent! We took a ride by the river, through the forest, and loved every minute of it! He won major boyfriend points with that one. The sweetest thing: he’s not an outdoorsy guy himself, but he knows how much I love the air, the mountains, the animals, etc., so he planned this whole day trip (zipcar, lunch) and everything and then surprised me with the bday gift! Such a lovely guy, and I feel so blessed to have him. Plus…this isn’t the first time he’s surprised me with something I wanted so badly…he surprised me with Hamilton tickets for our anniversary…so he’s definitely amazing!