Success

When I was twelve I defined my horse successes as qualifying for the Royal Winter Fair and getting asked to catch ride a new pony.

When I was twenty-two success was carrying my dressage score through an event and looking at my Pony Club pins with nostalgia.

When I was thirty-two success meant stopping riding for a little while while we (my husband and I) figured out life - that was a hard success to accept in a lot of ways.

Success now is much more permanent and much more fleeting at the same time. It's a great ride across a field with a friend; it's a loose and free shoulder in. It's watching a wound fill in and leave no scar. It's noticing a horse eat and sigh with contentment. It's a full hay loft and a brush full of hair. It's horses galloping for the sheer joy of life.

It's a ribbon on the wall, it's a compliment from a trainer or judge. It's my name in a byline and it's helping someone else understand and draw the parameters around what success looks like for them.

My definition of success has changed a lot over the decades and it's hardly changed at all. It was external expressed but it has always been internally driven. And that, to me, is kind of magical.

May success walk beside you too!