I have a philosophy about life, and that is, “Life is a journey, not a race.” A friend of mine has a bumper sticker on her horse trailer that says, "Life is a journey. Enjoy the ride." I would rather go hiking, or better yet, EQUITREKKING, than race in a 5K or in the Kentucky Derby. I enjoy and appreciate the skill and commitment that all disciplines of horseback riding require. But when I’m in the saddle, I like to explore and just be with the horse, out in nature, away from the ruckus. Just sitting watching horses is enough for me. I’m certain that the reason I love trail riding so much is because that’s the original relationship I had with horses as a young girl. My dad and I use to saddle up and go on long trail rides around our farm neighborhood in Iowa. My chestnut paint horse, Judge, was a good boy who took good care of me. I know this because I really didn’t know how to ride “correctly,” and he was young and really wanted to misbehave. He ran off with me a time or two, but I didn’t know I should have been scared, and just hung on and waited to see where he was taking me. So, you can see I had a relatively spontaneous and unstructured introduction to equestrian life. And I loved it. Growing up on a small farm meant scads of animals, intentional and not. We had a giant lake-sized pond for fishing, and 17-and-one-quarter acres to play on. One of my favorite things was digging in the dirt; whether it was near the house, under a tree in the pasture or by the creek. My mom said I even ate dirt when I was little. My brother and I used to carve out roads for his Matchbox cars and find treasures like cool rocks, fossils or old coins. I heard stories of people who found Native American arrowheads, but I was never lucky enough to find one of those. We also sifted through the fresh limestone gravel along the sides of our farm road for fossils. Digging as a kid was the seed that sprouted my interest in archaeological excavations later in life. Another layer of my life that will inevitably show up in my blog is that I have been in the business of education my entire life. My grandmother was a teacher and we played school (I was the teacher, of course). I was a kid in the public school system and babysat a lot of kids, I taught elementary and middle school as a regular classroom teacher and as a reading specialist, and I trained elementary teachers at Missouri State University. I have special certifications in reading and gifted education. I am also the mother of three girls. I have always had pets to train and take care of and wouldn’t be very happy without them. I’m always teaching and more importantly, always learning. Thank you for following me, and again, welcome. That’s Today’s Scoop! BK Bradshaw Reposted from August 25th, 2011
