An completely inspirational visit today that actually brought me on the brink of tears. Oh hell, what am I talking about. I DID cry. Here I am with the weight of the world on my shoulders and it all just fell away today. There has been so much going on in our lives these past couple of months. My husband's job future has been uncertain. I've taken a job to help keep things going, life has been just absolutely insane. In fact I was in that "life's unfair" mode . . . this visit was very much needed and absolutely gave me the forward motion I was looking for.

I first arrived of course with pockets full of cookies. Went to her stall and walked on in, wondering what she'd think after not seeing me since January. She stuck her nose straight in my face and hair and sniffed and blew and sniff and blew then dove straight for the pocket with the cookies. I scratched all over, walked around and marveled at how well kept she's been in my absence. She looked absolutely amazing. She must have had a bath the day before but wouldn't you know out of all the places to lay in her stall, she apparently decided to use a pile of poop for her pillow. So here was this gorgeous white animal until she turned her head to the right and and you could see her poopy face.

Looking at her back, it's remained unchanged. As I later explained to TBG, I've been gone for quite some time. If anything dramatic has changed and her back seemed worse, I would have noticed. To me, nothing has changed. She's not better but it's not worse and that's the one thing we've kept an eye on.

We ran to check on some things real quick while Rosie was saddled in our absence. TBG was there when we returned and we started catching up on how Rose was doing. I cannot stress enough how great TBG and his staff are. If I had to describe them with one word, I'd simply say "amazing". I have basically given TBG "guardianship" of Rose and he puts her best interests right up front. He's told me to contact him before every futurity payment is due so he could let me know yay or nay. She did come up a little back sore last month and I was fully prepared for him to tell me that we'd have to back off on her training and take it slow and to not worry about the futurity (which it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all if it was in her best interest to tone her training down a few notches) but that's not what I heard today. The care she receives under TBG, shoot, I don't even think I could take any better care of her myself.

He led her to the arena, mounted and began their warm ups and then we watched as the team of man and horse started their circles. The fast ones were fast and when TBG asked for that slow circle, Rosie broke down so fast into that slow circle that I know if I'd been on that horse, I would've been launched. Her lead changes was so fast you had to stare at her legs to see it happen. I missed the first one it was so fast.

Small break as TBG rode up to talk to us a bit. As he slowly walked her up it was then it hit me. All the emotion and all the stress that had been building for many weeks. I bit my lip cause I surely didn't want TBG to see me cry. Watching those two in action was absolutely mesmerizing. What I was seeing was just unbelievable that this little white pony held so much hope on her shoulders and showed such heart. Definitely inspiring. As TBG knelt down to put on her skidboots I felt another round of awe as Rose stood completely still for him to boot her and he did not hold her at all. I think if that man were to walk across the entire arena and left her to stay in one spot, she'd stay put until his return.

Next it was time for the stops. I quit taking pictures after I captured the first two. I was too busy watching. I think the two photos I did manage to get wrap it all up in a nutshell.