MADDY~
It's harder to write about Maddy, when she was younger she was so shy and had such terrible social anxiety, I had to talk for her most of the time, and now it seems like every time I talk about her she says just the opposite. I am very glad she no longer suffers from these issues, I'm so glad she has grown up and become her very own person, don't get me wrong, she has ALWAYS been her own person, she just didn't have it in her to tell you, out loud, who that person was. Now is different. Maddy has always had a quiet confidence about her, she was confident in everything she did, even if she didn't know how to do something she had the confidence in herself, to go find out how to do it. She is a very hard worker. She is driven. If she wants something she will work hard to achieve it. Yes sometimes she is too hard on herself. Maddy has had several true passions in life, fitness, volleyball, and horses. She worked hard in all areas of these and has endured injury, ugliness, and still never gave up. I am proud of all she has done and the way in which she handled herself getting it done. But lately the horse has been the area that I feel like celebrating the most, for her and about her. When she was given the {wonderful} opportunity to ride a horse that belonged to someone else, she totally embraced it. Chip is a wonderful horse and it was incredibly kind of his owners to make this offer. He hadn't been ridden for a couple of years, he is getting up there in age {20+}, he'd had a couple of injuries in his day, and it was already a few months into show season, and he did not belong to Maddy. To some people those may have been insurmountable odds, and some people would have been content to just ride him around. But Maddy, being Maddy, she went for it all. She got a lot of advice from my horse riding bff, Shelli, and his owners, and she did everything she could to make this a wonderful experience for herself and the horse. She worked him slowly into shape, she took extra care and concern for his old injuries, she got herself back into horse riding shape, and she learned his little personality quirks and what it took to work together with him. She learned how to load and unload a horse. She learned how to pull and back up a trailer. {I learned a thing or two along the way also!} She went to a couple of shows, they did well. She took him to fair, and a while at the fair I experienced what a truly wonderful horse person she really was. She took the entire week off from work, to make sure she had plenty of time to get him out of his stall and exercise him {to keep him from swelling} she took extra care of his legs, using poultice every night and rinsing him every morning. Then a couple days into fair, she found out he had a bad case of thrush, he cold barely walk She sat in his stall with him, she worried non stop until she could find someone who could help her out and start the process of getting him healed up. They told her what they could try to do to get him in shape to show, and she touched us all when she told the farrier that she didn't care if she couldn't show him, she just wanted him healthy. Showing was secondary to all other things at that moment. She continued to care for him, and eventually he was pretty close to ready. They had a few kinks to work out, he was a bit stir crazy from being in a stall, but they got through. They ribboned in every class, and they had fun. She chased down and gave what-for to some stupid kids who were blowing blow horns and scaring the horses. The last night of fair she was so worried that the fireworks would scare him, that she stayed with him the entire time. Now I'm not saying all girls don't love their horses and I'm not saying they don't all take care of their horses. But Maddy goes the extra mile, hell she goes 2 miles. She has a love and kindness about her that moves me to tears, seriously!{and I do not not cry!!} She gave him everything she had in her to give and if you asked her why she would tell you that -he was giving her everything he had in him, and that she truly loves that horse. I'm not telling you this story to brag about my daughter, I'm telling you to celebrate her spirit, her kind heart, her drive, her ambition, her devotion to another being, her desire to learn, and do what is best for someone/thing else. And lets not forget how wonderful they looked together{she does love to groom!}and how wonderful she looked. She looked beautiful on that horse. I am not bragging, she is a pretty girl, that's just a fact. BUT you can be pretty and still be ugly! She is not. She has a quiet beauty about her. She doesn't know how pretty she is, and all these good qualities she has within her and her confidence are what carry her to the next level of pretty, she is beautiful. Even in a pair of grubby jeans, dirty boots, shoveling horse poop, she is still beautiful. When you watch her shoveling poop or riding or just being in that barn, you see pure love, enjoyment and relaxation on her face. Some people might not notice it, but I've been watching her for 18 years. And I know when she's happy {and I know when she is not-even if she doesn't want to share it with me} This is how I celebrate Maddy, by watching her do the things she enjoys or be with the horse she loves. These are the things that make me enjoy being around her. These are the qualities about her that inspire me to be a better person, to work harder. When I walk, and I'm bored or I just want to quit, or my hips hurt, I think about her and how hard she works, not just in fitness but with that horse. I think about her knee injuries and how painful it was to get through them. I think about how much work she put into a horse that is not hers, I think about a deal I made with her. I think about the fact that she will honor her commitments to Chip and the deal she made with me, because honor is important. She will work very hard, she will do the best she can, she will do what is best for him always, and do the best they can, as a team, next year. And she will do it with love. So who am I to quit!!! This is how I Celebrate Maddy, this is how she inspires me:
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