Can Horses Love You? Undoubtedly!

Most horse-crazy girls of any age will tell you that of course a horse can love you back. And I don’t care what the skeptics and hard-nosed trainers of the world say. They didn’t see what my horse did the other day.

I’ve been a little busy lately with house projects and committee meetings, and not riding a lot since I’m still sans saddle. I’ve been visiting Ace, brushing him, playing on the ground in bits, and riding bareback some. But no serious work. And I spent two days painting and cleaning my house last week … and then my in-laws came to visit.

So I’d spent all of about 5 minutes with Ace over three days.

Sunday night I went out with my mom-in-law and nephew to visit Ace and let my nephew play with him a bit. The horses had been turned out for the night, and were happily munching the lush green grass in their ample pastures. They hadn’t been out of their stalls in 36 hours due to storms, and had been outside for less than an hour that evening.

Ace was in the far back pasture. I got a leadrope and some cookies, and headed out to catch him.

I walked around the corner of the storage shed and stepped into the lane that went back to the pasture. As soon as I rounded the corner, I saw Ace’s head shoot up in the distance and look at me. I yelled a hello to him. He stood there staring at me; I could almost see him squinting to make sure that tiny figure in the distance was in fact his mom.

He nodded his head once. Then he took off marching determinedly through the pasture.

And met me at the gate.

If you would have been there, you would have been impressed. Even from a distance, you could see the moment he recognized that it really was me. And he never took his eyes off me as he ran to meet me.

It was by far the sweetest moment I’ve ever had with a horse. And one that still gets to me just a little. I had a gut feeling the day I met Ace that he was the one for me, and he just continues to prove me right!