The Importance of Play

Jasper and I have been having a tough time connecting this week. There are a few problems going on here, and I can blame no one for them.

For one, I'm incredibly stressed out. Sure, it sounds ridiculous since I'm done with school and haven't started work and am technically on vacation right now. But merging two households worth of animals and, well, crap, is making me crazy. Our house is not very big, and I'm constantly amazed at the amount of worthless stuff we've accumulated over the past 5 years apart. Not to mention my dear, darling husband has been living as a near bachelor for at least the past year and suffice it to say we nearly need a jackhammer to get through some of the sludge.

For another, when I went out to ride on Sunday last weekend, Jasper was crazy. He's fit, he's fat, and he's been sitting around doing nothing but eating for the past three weeks. Pile on top of that my stress and you've got yourself the makings of a perfect storm. We got about 2 miles into my training ride last weekend and I quit. I couldn't take another layer of stress.

I went out the next day to work him in the arena, and he was still a nutcase. Unable to concentrate, spooking at imaginary things, refusing to pick up the right canter lead, nearly running us into a fence in protest of picking up said canter lead. I knew my dear, sweet Jasper had to be in there somewhere, but we were just not clicking. And with the stress and my lack of fitness, I decided we'd take the week day by day and decide whether or not to do the ride this weekend.

Finally it dawned on me. With me being out of town and graduated and thinking about cleaning and organizing all the time, Jasper gets the short end of the stick. I show up for a couple days, I ride, I do things to prepare for our endurance rides and then I split. Jasper and I haven't had time to just BE for months, and I could tell our connection was weakened because of it.

So today I hooked up the trailer, loaded the dogs and picked up Jasper to trailer to a neutral location for a nice no-agenda ride. He got out of the trailer, looked around, and breathed a sigh of relief, despite being the only horse in the entire universe. We chatted while I tacked up, and I mounted my sane, steady Jasper of months past. I let him choose the trail, I let him choose the speed (so long as it was walk). We did a little trotting (he felt STRONG, but controlled), but my plan for the ride was to have no plan at all.

Jasper didn't toss his head once, he looked around and enjoyed the scenery and the light breeze through his mane. He grumped at the dogs when they got too close, he stopped to smell horse poop, he drank from puddles and munched on fresh green grass at the trail's edge whenever he felt the need. I swear I could see him smiling, just like me. The birds were singing, the sun was out, and despite predictions of thunderstorms all afternoon, the weather cooperated.

Which brings me to my point. It's very easy for me to get so focused on goals that I forget about the importance of playing. The importance of doing something that doesn't achieve anything other than pure enjoyment and living in the moment. And despite the lack of goals or desire for results, I actually achieved something wonderful. Today it was Jasper and I, just a girl and her horse, going out and enjoying the world and living in the moment for every minute of it.