My two cents

So I know this has nothing to do with the horse rescues, but in some ways it particularly does. 

Over the past few months aka a year or so I have been wondering what each horse can teach to riders.  So when I try and match up riders with horses I try to match up for three things: skill level, personality, and horses that are being underworked.  Each horse has a lesson to teach us and I believe it is important to learn those lessons with as much of an open mind as possible.  Sometimes the decrepit horse has more too teach us than any other young horse ever has. 

There is an old horse I know that is as stubborn as a mule but underneath all that roughness is really a sweet old lady that has some great training on her.  (Lol now that I think about it I know another horse like that who is a grouchy old man.) These horses have some very important lessons to teach us and too many simply miss the point that under all that dust is actually an amazing horse.  Such lessons include not judging a horse purely on looks or on first impressions, to know for sure where you are headed and why, to be able to effectively put your point across, and balance.  Now I know those things seem like a far stretch from what old Lucy can teach you, from riding her.  Though at the end of the day when all is said and done you will be surprised at just how much a horse can teach you.

I know that in the past and still to this day I have had issues believing that there is any lesson attached to riding a certain horse except just to give that horse some exercise.  Usually at the end of these rides I am convinced of either two things my instructor gave me a valuable lesson or she is quite simply trying to torture me.  As I look back on the past I realize the importance of some of those torture rides and why I was forced to do what I did. 

So I guess what I am trying to say is don't turn your nose up at a horse just because they are old or not as pretty as the others.  Each and everyhorse has a lesson that they can teach you.