It’s been fourteen years since I last climbed onto a horse. The last time didn’t exactly end on a high note — unless you count being launched into the air and coming down squarely on my right kneecap. That ride left me with a week on crutches and a lingering hesitation about ever getting back on.
But sometimes the right horse comes along and gives you the confidence you didn’t know you still had. Meet Judy — a four-year-old Haflinger/Brabant draft cross with a calm spirit, strong build, and kind eyes. She’s young, steady, and exactly the type of horse you’d want if you were stepping back into the saddle after more than a decade away.
Swinging my leg over the saddle again felt both familiar and foreign. My hands remembered the reins, but my body remembered the fall. For a moment, I braced myself for history to repeat itself. Instead, Judy just stood there, patient and unbothered, waiting for me to breathe.
As we started moving, I realized how much I had missed this — the sway of her gait, the sound of hooves pressing into the dirt, the quiet connection between horse and rider. It wasn’t about speed or distance. It was about trust, and about rewriting the memory of that last ride.
Riding Judy reminded me that getting back on a horse — literally and figuratively — is sometimes the hardest part, but also the most rewarding. My knee held up, my nerves settled, and by the end of the ride, I wasn’t thinking about the past anymore. I was just enjoying the moment.
Here’s to second chances, gentle horses, and the joy of rediscovering something you thought you had left behind