Here Comes The Sun

John Toli

April 5, 2021

March is here and we are gearing up for a great year. I am so tired of hearing about 2020 being bad. A lot of great things happened to a lot of great people. If you are one of the folks who got bogged down, I feel terribly bad for you. I bet you can think of a number of things that were really good about 2020. Hearing all the negativity almost forced us to focus on the bad. I don’t focus on the bad. Why bother? It doesn’t do a darn bit of good — just digs your own hole deeper.

I have always found March to be an enlightening month. Maybe because it is my birthday month. It just seems to dump a cold bucket of water over my head and forces me to wake up. At 57 now, I have more to reflect on, but also much more to plan! I can really focus on what is important in my life. What do I want to do with my life while I still have the ability? What are my goals with everything I love to do?

So here comes April. I have my plans and I am ready to spring into action and make it all happen. Being a horseman from New England, April was a month of getting out from under a blanket of blustery cold weather, blankets of snow covering everything, and twenty below zero when even time seemed to stop. Now that we live full-time on our horse property here in South Carolina, April is the month that it all turns on. Saddles and bridles are cleaned and oiled. Chaps are good and soft. Time to break in a new pair of cowboy boots, give my mare a good warm bath, wash and wax the horse trailer, clean and store our “winter” blankets, reseed our pastures, … Time to shake my head at the amount of money we spent at feed stores, tack shops, and on other assorted “stuff.”

When I was organizing our tack trunks, brush boxes, and tack room shelves, I discovered that, between my wife and I, there are 6 full bottles of Cowboy Magic Detangler. I’m lucky if I can find a full bottle of shampoo in our house!

April should be a month for turning the corner. The sun is warms the earth longer each day. The moonlight is spectacular down here in South Carolina. Have you ever taken your horse out on a moonlight ride with friends? Or your spouse on a moonlight picnic? Refer to my December article and you’ll see what that kind of planning is all about. If you don’t plan, there is a good chance it won’t happen. Life gets in the way every day in the form of work, bills, weather, car repairs, kids’ activities, and more. You all know what I’m taking about. Plan ahead. Make it happen. Get planning!

I love a good quote. Here is a great quote from Gloria Steinem: “Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” If that does not say it all, I’m not sure what does.

Hope all is well with you. Dream away. And as I write this, there are 286 days until Christmas — just sayin’.Adiós for now!

John Toli

John has a lifelong relationship with horses. Well known in the equine industry, he has balanced his time training, instructing, judging, and teaching equine nutrition. John has worked for a nationally recognized feed company as well as serving as consultant to others. Prior to The Feed Geek, he managed New England Performance Nutrition, another equine nutrition consulting business. His guiding principle is a pure belief in the importance of balanced equine nutrition in regards to equine health and performance. John’s schooling included Texas A&M, Oregon State University, Kansas State, Purina Mills Equine Research Farm, and on-going equine nutrition based education. He has also spoken at conferences at Tufts University as well as in veterinary practices. John now owns The Feed Geek, Equine Nutrition Consulting. For more information, feel free to call him at 603.520.3875, email [email protected], or visit The Feed Geek on Facebook.

John Toli

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