I remember going to “horse camp” a few summers as a kid, and I did some one-off horse rides at other times in my youth. It was fun to ride horses, but I never developed a passion or developed much interest in them. Heck, as a young child somehow I got to be part of a National Geographic book on pets (me and 2 of my cats were photographed for it). One thing I recall from that book was a chart discussing each type of pet in the book. The chart contained things like the food they would eat, care required, activity level, housing needs, etc.. There’s one row in the chart that always stuck out in my mind: cost. I will also never forget that of all the animals listed in the chart, only one was listed as high cost.

Horses.

As far back as I can remember, Daughter has had a thing for horses. She loved My Little Pony. She’s always had some attraction to horses, be it in toys or stories or things to watch. When we visit Pioneer Farms she’s drawn to the horses above all the animals there. So when a friend invited me and the family out to Graymar Farm, we went.

Daughter was hooked.

Since then it’s been a waiting game. They’ve been working to find a good lesson horse, and I’ve been agonizing over what this is going to cost me. Sure just doing lessons now is inexpensive, but if this pans out I know what it could mean down the line. Remember what I said about the only pet listed in the chart that was “high cost”?

But since then we’ve visited the farm a few times and kept in touch about things. While my wallet aches, my heart sings. And frankly, that Daughter hasn’t forgotten about this in the 3-4 months since we first visited the farm well… that’s a positive sign. It’s no passing fad with her. Lessons? It’s not a huge investment. The people at Graymar are wonderful, they truly love what they do, so I feel we’ve gotten in with the right people. And hey, the cost is reasonable enough that Wife can join in too. She always wanted to ride horses, but never could as a kid because her family couldn’t afford such things. Wife was willing to be a good Mommy and defer her desires to ensure Daughter could fulfill her dreams. But I am trying to be a good Husband and ensuring my Wife can fulfill her dreams too. So, it might cut into the guns and ammo budget, but that’s OK. 😉

The interesting thing is I don’t find myself being in so much pain about the money factor any more. I’ll find ways to afford it and make it happen. What I do find myself doing now is thinking about the future. What does this mean for us? Where could this lead? This is certainly a left-turn-at-Albuquerque sort of moment: you know, where you were planning to follow one path but something happened that took you off the trail and led to some wonderful adventure:

I never expected such a thing in my life, and while it’s certainly OK, there’s something about this particular itinerary change that sits differently with me. It’s not a bad feeling, but I can’t put my finger on just what it is. Even if it doesn’t pan out long-term or life-changing (like it did for my friend Rebecca), life has certainly taken a different turn and I’m going somewhere different. It’s all good tho. I’m enjoying the ride.