On Conquering Fears

I am hot and sweaty and tired and gross and really should be in a shower right now.  (how's that for a sentence?)  I just gave a horse a bath.  Specifically, this horse.

This is "Country Come to Town" or, Country.  He is big and old and acts like a dog following you around.  He is my mother's horse and his skin has been itchy, he needed a bath, and someone needed to do it.  Have I mentioned that I have always loved horses but been terrified of them up close?  I think they are beautiful, but they are so darn big.  My brother and sister had riding lessons when we were kids, but by the time I was old enough they were bored with it.  My mom had grown up on a farm but had not had a horse for 45(?) years when she got Country.  My husband worked with horses at a camp in Colorado.  My sister-in-law rides, two of my sister's kids ride, my daughter loves to ride, I am surrounded by it.

My daughter started acting a little hesitant around the horses recently.  I do not want my scaredy cat ways to be picked up by my children.  So I resolved to get more comfortable with the horses.  Country is a great horse for this experiment because he is so gentle.  Little by little I have been increasing my confidence with him.  Today, by myself, I went in the pasture to get him, put his halter on, led him through the barn and hooked him up outside where I gave him an oatmeal bath followed by a medicated bath for his skin.  Do you know the problem with giving a horse an oatmeal bath?  They really like the smell of the oatmeal.  Country kept trying to get into the bucket and kept trying to steal the sponge.

So I DID IT!  I bathed the horse, turned him back out into the pasture and put everything up.  Then I practically skipped home.  I have such a feeling of accomplishment.  It's like a huge box has been checked off.  I had to sit down and write when I got home.  (after I washed my hands, of course!)  So now I need to take a shower, and possibly a nap! Then I will think about what to conquer next!

**Update** Today, I had to hold Country's head while the Vet cleaned his teeth!!!!  Combine a fear of horses and a fear of dentistry and I was weak at the knees.  The tool the Vet uses was actually on a power drill!!  but I survived yet again, (and I thought giving the horse a bath was a big deal, phew!)