Bucking horses named Nancy Puzzle.

Out in the pasture we have a very pretty sorrel mare.  She is always one of the first to greet you, will follow you around, and is very kind.  Her sire is a great horse, with a fantastic show and production record, and her mother is one of the best in the industry.  She is a great mover, excellent athlete, and will buck your butt off as soon as you get a little out of balance.  She flunked out of the training program after eight months of trying to fix her desire to pile you in the dirt when she thought you were not paying attention.  In cowboy terms she is a coyote, in layman terms a hypocrite. So why do I have her?

I ask myself this a lot. Take for example Nancy Pelosi, why do we have her?  She rants about the republican “war on women” and yet she pays her female staffers 26.7% less than her male staffers.  She wants to pass legislation so we can find out what is in it. But will not sign up for the services the legislation provides, after we read it.  Let’s just be honest the lady is a nut and if natural selection had a stronger role she would have been gone a long time ago.  I would love to take her on a pack trip into the middle of nowhere for the entertainment value alone.  Could you see her trying to catch a fish for dinner? Now that’s funny!

Then there are the subways inside a Wal-Mart.  Am I the only one that finds a healthy fast food chain inside the redneck store of the world a bit ironic?  Put dunkin' donuts in that place. This kind of stuff goes right along with New York's attempted ban on large soda drinks.  The ban proposed by politicians that raise money by having cocktail parties.  For fun go do the sugar and calorie math on that one and grab a diet Bacardi on ice while you’re at it.  For my readers short on time a fruity cocktail has more calories than two big macs or a 64-ounce soda. Drink that with with your cigarette and light beer at the next New York Democratic fundraiser.

I would hate to leave out folks like myself who run to the tea party and scream lower my taxes.  Then rush home to complain about the amount of my refund from last year.  I am not sure on the numbers but I would guess a bunch of us on the right don’t pay taxes in the end, or very little just like the Hollywood star who has their opperations set up in Nevada.  Did I mention how fantastic the latest George Clooney movie is? I had to give it a five star on my review.  Why do I watch his stuff?

In the end we all end up providing something good and something not as good.  I am sure there is a little bit of coyote in us all.  So why do we keep it around?  The same reason I keep our little mare puzzle, I hope to raise something good out of her, something better than what she is.  Pelosi has provided many great laughs while debating on the house floor.  I fill better about making fun of fat people at Wal-Mart when I am eating at sub-way.  I really enjoy a good movie and Maximus from Gladiator is still my hero. Even though he is portrayed by someone with a vastly different worldview than mine (I realize that Maximus is played by Russell Crow but Clooney has never given me a role to use as a hero and you get the point I hope).  I believe for the most part we are trying to make the world better and doing our best to pay the women in our lives as much as the men.  Sometimes is just hard to not buck when you see the opportunity to put someone in the dirt, just ask Puzzle.

Hope and Foals

This time of year one of my favorite things to do in the evening is look out the window of our home and watch the baby horses play in the field.  As they run and interact with the world around them its exciting to see their personality start to develop.  This year we have one little filly that is a social butterfly, she seems to spend more time over visiting her friends than with her mom.  At times her mother is in the back pasture while she is in the front.  She is worry free and very brave.  Her best friend is a mommy’s girl, always happy to play but never to far from mom.  One of our newest is a very cute palomino colt.  Younger than his pasture buddies he is timid around the other foals, but loves to pick on mom.  He is often climbing on her, kicking at her, and doing anything else to bug her.  Full of energy and life when in his comfort zone but shy in a crowd, he is brave but bashful.

I love the hope and optimism each one of them brings to my life.  They are full of potential.  They are different colors and some show great natural athletic ability others kindness and some are a bit wild.  They all however have the world before them and I am sure one of them will be a futurity champion.  This is why I breed horses to see them have a chance to succeed, hoping they can reach their full potential.

I have one very special baby outside my window she has it all looks, talent, and a very solid mind.  Her sire is my favorite horse in the world and her mother is the only horse that I love more than my favorite horse in the world.  She is my special foal, a gift to me from above.  Years of faith, hope, and financial investment are resting in her.  I know that she is special.  I also know that her full sister is at summer pasture and I will start riding her this fall and that inside her mom grows another, we are hoping for a boy this time.  They are my hope and optimism. 

Eternal optimism is the gift that runs around in my pasture every spring.  A gift too few people are seeing today.  The talking heads can argue and fight their wars on women and the bucket list of hot topics.  They can try to paint a picture of doom and gloom that only their party can fix.  The wise horseman however knows that the real solution is outside the window in a little package with long wobbly legs that run and play.  Optimism is the horse breeders eternal gift every spring and its what we need to find more of this fall.