Owning a Horse, Living with Allergies and Asthma and Seeing the Joy in Everyday Life.
A dream from the Dreamworks Project
Hello Beautiful Soul,
Welcome to a Field of Dreams, a growing collection of the dreams and aspirations of contemporary women around the world. Each woman has been interviewed as a part of the Dreamworks Project, and is happy for her words to be shared anonymously here.
The Dreamworks Project is ongoing. You can learn more about it and even book your own interview through the project webpage (its free): https://www.sarahlkent.com/dreamworks-project
Today’s offering is from an interview I gave in April 2024. The following words are all the interviewees and offer you a window into one of this woman’s dreams.
Enjoy!
Sarah Xx
Owning a Horse, Living with Allergies and Asthma and Seeing the Joy in Everyday Life.
My dream is to own my own horse, that has always been my dream. And it's more about the connection that you have with the with the horse, essentially the rider horse connection. I think that's what I'm yearning for.
It's a big thing to ride a horse - they're huge they could do anything; they could chuck you off, or run off with you. But you can really enjoy your riding when you have a bond with a horse, where it's intuition more than anything. Just trusting in your horse that they will look after you and you can learn new skills together.
When you're at a riding school you ride a different horse every time. It's really hard to build that connection.
I remember I rode my uncle's horse Tundra from when I was very young until he was put down when I was 15. It's the connection that I had with him that I'm probably looking to try and recreate.
Tundra felt like my own horse because although he was my uncle's, nobody else rode him. My uncle couldn't ride him anymore because he was too old.
Then there was a very long period, maybe about 30 years, where I couldn't ride because I developed asthma and allergies. They don't know which one came first.
I was basically told not to go near horse again because it could kill me. So I didn't.
Over the years I would just try and stroke a horse, or I'd try to go close to a horse and I think it just slowly got better. And recently I've discovered some really good allergy tablets. It's still something I need to manage, but it's certainly not as bad as when I was younger. The asthma and allergies are still there, but I can ride.
In my ideal world, I'd have a horse in a yard very close to me. I would go able to my horse in the morning and evening. I'd be feeding my horse, turning it out and grooming it, all of those things that you do to look after your horse. And through doing those tasks you develop this bond - you get to know more about each other and trust each other a bit more.
When that bond is there, the horse does things for you that maybe it doesn't do with other people.
So when you go to get your horse from the field, they come over to of their own free will without being bribed with food or anything. They let you pick up their feet and you know they're happy for you to do those tasks with them.
And you can progress your riding with them. You might hire an instructor to come and help you learn some new skills and the horse is open to that. They trust in you, as much as you trust in them. And they start learning to trust you as a rider and they gain confidence from you.
I don't have any ambitions to compete or do anything like that. I'd like to be able to go out for a hack locally, where I live. I've walked a lot in the woods and it would be nice to go out in the woods on my own horse and just enjoy the riding
I'm in a financial position to do it now too. When I was younger, I had a dream job that I wanted, and I've just achieved that dream. That job is giving me the finances that I need to be able to achieve this dream.
I've got two daughters and they are following their dreams, and I think it's because I followed mine.
I think if I achieved the horse dream as well it would inspire them to aim even bigger and follow their dreams.
As long as people can understand and see the journey you've been on, where you've come from and how you've worked hard to get there, they can feel inspired as well. They might think “Actually, I could achieve this. Why can't I do that what she's done? I could do that.”
I've learned this through life: You can feel happy or content by achieving small things. You don't always have to focus on the big thing that you're trying to achieve.
There's the little things along the way, the daily things or the things that you can see and feel that bring you joy. You mustn't lose sight of that.
It's important, not to just hang everything on one thing. You also need to see the joy in everyday life.
I'm doing everything I can at the moment to get to get me to where I want to be. I'm having lessons and I'm learning about horses as much as I can.
I'm enjoying that journey and the bits along the way. I'm not just hanging everything on the end result.
Because you know, it might not happen.
You've got to still be enjoying what you're doing in the meantime.”
Interview April 2024
Addendum:
As I was writing up this dream ready for publishing here in A Field of Dreams, I received a direct message from the woman whose dream this is. She has kindly given me permission to share her words here:
“Hi Sarah, You may remember my dream was to own a horse. Well I am on my way. After sharing my dream with you I was contacted by someone who has horses and one was up for loan. Just round the corner from my house. So now I loan a horse who I ride a couple of times a week.
We are concentrating on building a relationship and I honestly feel like it has completed me. The missing piece of the life I was looking for. I didn't realise just how powerful sharing my dream would be.
It has been such a powerful emotional experience and I am not ashamed to admit that when I go to the yard and ride I leave there so full of love and pure joy, I am often brought to tears. X ”