Live Life Enthusiastically
“Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.” Bo Bennett You may inherently tend to be more “Miss Susie Sunshine” than “Debbie Downer,” but the truth is enthusiasm is a choice. Enthusiasm is derived from passion. Sometimes that passion is instinctive and at other times we have to train our brains to think enthusiastically. Living as an enthusiastic person requires motivation and dedication. Since we live in a world that bombards us with negativity, it also takes true grit. This may sound like a lot of effort and it is. The good news is that recent research indicates that people who live enthusiastically not only live happier, […]
The Golden Rule | That Made Me Blush
It happens to the best of us. It is not a good feeling when you realize that you have made a major mistake and you want to knock yourself in your forgetful head. You are traveling. You reach your destination. You open your luggage and you realize that you have left most of your toiletry items at home. It is late, so you make the most of the hotel micro mini toothbrush and tiny tube of toothpaste. Until tomorrow … when you realize that most of your makeup is also in that toiletry bag! Now, it’s serious, especially if you are a Southern woman whose momma taught you NEVER to […]
Hold Your Horses!
Quit horsin’ around and use your horse sense to read all about horse idioms and sayings He said I had to choose him or my horse. I miss him sometimes. Cowgirl Spirit “Does anyone know where I can find some road apples?” Everyone else kept playing Bunco but I froze in my seat. I grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where Amish and Mennonites mingled their horse and buggies in traffic. If you just washed your car you tried to avoid road apples dumped on the street by uncaring horses plodding along to get to the next stop. You were careful to walk around piles where the horses had been […]
Let’s Do Some Math
What does % mean when it pertains to equine nutrition? It means that you need to know a little bit about math. We can get into part per million and grams, but that will be another day. Let’s focus on percentages today. Throughout the years of feeding horses, feed companies have trained consumers, not with purpose, to buy a specific type of feed based solely on protein percentages of 10%, 12%, 14%, or 16%, since the choices were rather limited. These percentages do not tell you the quality of the proteins, nor does it tell the amino acid breakdown. That being said, many high quality 10% protein feeds can out […]
Frodo: From Racehorse to War Horse to Home
It was nearly half a decade ago. Yet I remember – I will forever remember – the day I met a horse named Frodo. It was on the grounds of the Aiken Equine Rescue, and Frodo was a participant in the remarkable Saratoga WarHorse program conducted there — an equine-based, peer-to-peer, veterans program that addresses the unseen wounds of both military post traumatic stress and off-the-track Thoroughbreds. I wrote about Frodo then, as I will write about him now. Frodo was bred to race. Frodo, however, amiably declined. A large, gray, beautiful Thoroughbred, Frodo simply refused to conform to the life of a racehorse. He just didn’t have the heart […]
Think Inside the Box
It’s outside what you expect The spaceship that I was driving must have been going a million miles per hour. At eight years old, I was enjoying the man in the moon while avoiding being seen by the Martians. It was a wonderful trip, and my box had once again made the exciting journey possible. Only moments later, I was in another world of adventure and my cabin (box) was protecting me from all the wild animals and possible spies in the surrounding forest. I had food and supplies for several days and could survive the storms, which were brutal at times. My box was my world of imagination and […]
The Drifters | Good Times
Every Thursday, when I was five, I had the same routine. I would walk home from school (back in the 80s, parents trusted their kids to do things like walking). I would do my homework. I’d have a snack. Then, around 4 o’clock, my father would pick me up for our court mandated visits. I’d climb into the back of his Pontiac, we’d pick up ‘the steps’ (mom, sister, and brother) and go out to eat. It was always somewhere cheap and forgettable, like Hardee’s or Roy Rogers, and then we’d go to visit my grandma in the nursing home. The music selection was always limited in my old man’s […]
Be Outside
“The enjoyment of scenery employs the mind without fatigue and yet exercises it; tranquilizes it and yet enlivens it.” ~ Fredrick Law Olmsted March is a magical month. The first day of spring is in March. Flowers are blooming and the earth is awakening after its winter slumber. Colors are brighter and everything feels fresh and new. The weather is warmer and it is the perfect time to Be Outside. Outside is where I go to refuel. There has never been anything that fills my tank more than being among nature. The website MentalFloss.com states that there are 11 scientific benefits of being outside. They are: Being outdoors boosts your […]
