Horses as our teachers

Happy Saturday! How is everyone feeling? This little meme made me giggle due to how much truth is in it.

Not sure how many know my story on why I decided to join the horse community and the major things I’ve learned about myself since fully immersing in it.

My employment history consists of an almost 20 year career in the medical coding/billing field working for many large medical facilities, where I would eventually be sought out to “clean up” billing errors for medical facilities who were losing money. In 2019 I was hired by a fairly large medical facility in the treasure valley and I knew immediately I didn’t fit in and wouldn’t last long there and that was okay by me as I was exhausted with the medical industry, I wanted no part of it anymore, I truly only liked my paychecks. I wasn’t looking forward to starting another job search so quickly so I ended up waiting it out. They were nice enough to keep me through the probationary period and then let me go with a full compensation package and then I was left to decide the next chapter in my life, which was going to be as far away from medical billing as I could get.

Since I had my own horses I figured I could just go ride for someone, after all I’ve been riding for 45 years that should count for something, right? 5 years later, I eventually got to where I’m being sought out for my skills but I had to learn a little bit about myself first and I thank the horses for teaching me.

Working in the horse industry has taught me serious budgeting skills, it’s taught me to be more aware about frivolous spending, I’ve learned how to hustle, especially when I have an expense that doesn’t involve my budget. It has taught me to pause and think before mindlessly spending money on things that I don’t need. My horses eat before I do, always.

I’ve learned to be my own advocate and to understand that this life is mine, I work for me and if I am unhappy with where my life is I have to be able to have that difficult conversation with myself and change what needs to be changed in order to get to where I want to go.

I have learned that when looking for a job in the horse industry first impressions are important, a drive to be greater is huge, and a willingness to learn is something that can’t be taught. Horses have a tendency to force us to look in the mirror. It’s hard to run from ourselves when fully immersed into the horse industry especially if we work alone and are not a part of a team.

When I’m out cleaning stalls I have to do a good job because the person who gets to clean them after my shift is ME. When you’re the only employee eventually you’ll have to put blame where it’s needed and it’ll be on yourself more than it’s not. This eventually leads to taking responsibility for yourself and your actions because there isn’t anyone else to blame.

Cleaning stalls, exercising horses, riding horses, training horses and everything that comes with horses isn’t for everyone. Several times a month I question if what I am doing falls into my goals and the more I learn about horses and their role in our lives, I just couldn’t imagine going back to work in an office and working for someone else.

A great quote I’ve heard in the horse industry is “there’s no growth in comfort”. I was pretty comfortable working in an office, making 4K a month, living paycheck to paycheck but I was also mentally drained, miserable and completely unfulfilled and had zero motivation to grow. Today I have a sense of purpose, goals, more drive than I’ve ever had and I’m fairly smart when it comes to my spending.

It’s amazing how many training techniques and philosophies we use for horses that are actually useful for humans. Horses truly are a blessing in our lives and they are here to teach us if we allow ourselves to be taught. I think we could learn a lot about ourselves from all animals if we found the courage to pay attention.

I might not have a lot of money but I have a lot of things money can’t buy.

Have a great weekend!