Rolex 2013

I sit and feel the stillness of an early morning surrounded by fog. I love mornings like this. Mornings that seem as if hope and promise are encapsulated in the dew around you. Then the stillness is broken by birds serenading the sun to come into full bloom and the day to begin. It's such a beautiful moment that I rarely take the time to notice anymore, and yet this happens every day all over the world. Is it by chance that mornings seem to hold such hope, such anticipation of things to come? I doubt it. At this moment my heart and mind are filled with it.

Rolex this year was such a different experience for me from the first year that I went. It was 3 yrs ago that I first watched "Rolex" unfold on the blue hills of Kentucky and I will probably never be the same. I'd never experienced one sport before that culminated all of my desire for challenge, power, speed, finesse, athleticism, courage, discipline, and horsemanship all in one. When I arrived this year I was still awe inspired by the facility, the courses, the riders and horses, but it wasn't as overwhelming as it had once been. The jumps looked do-able, the dressage movements achievable, and the dream possible. That first year when I said, "I want to do this", it was with a somewhat reckless courage, lack of fear, and love of a challenge that propelled me forward. Now, it is still with courage, but with a good deal more respect and calculation that I continue on. This time 3 years ago I was barely riding, I didn't have a horse and I wasn't jumping. Now, I have a horse that was given to me as an answer to prayer, who is as talented and athletic as I ask him to be and I also have an amazing support system in my husband, family and trainer. God really does care about the little things and the longings of your heart. I felt so dumb the day I finally broke down and asked God to give me a horse or send me to Vet school. Not a week later He arranged through the most intricate of details to give me that very horse. I hope I never forget that. God has been so faithful in caring for he deepest desires of my heart. I just had to actually ask him.