Saying Goodbye

So although I am not sure that I am ready to let the world know my true feelings, I feel that I owe it to my special horse Murphy and share with whoever is going to read this how this horse has been apart of my life the last six years. Tomorrow morning Murphy is heading up the east coast to go teach a lovely girl Olivia at the training and preliminary level. Although I am very sad and I am sure tomorrow is going to be one full of tears, I know that this will be a great partnership and in the best interest of both me and my favorite four legged friend. We will save a later blog to update you all on my life, but for know the spot light is on my friend spotty. 

Murphy has been a rock in the last six years of my life. When I thought I was at my lowest, this lovely horse showed me how to heal and really how to love again. While although some of you may laugh, there is something so special about brining a young horse along and having so many of your dreams come true. When Griffin passed away I honestly thought about giving up and letting go of  riding. It wasn't but a mere coincidence that I ended up crossing paths with this horse who I frankly thought was ugly and wasn't sure he was going to be anything special. But I do have a firm belief that God puts people in the right places at the right time and this horse happened to enter my life when I needed him. I remember the first day I brought him home to Baythorne Farm and my stellar coach Matt at the time looking at me like I was an alien as this red headed chestnut with SPOTS comes into the indoor and starts running circles around me... Lets all remember my parents had no idea that Murphy was apart of my life until I had had him about a month. Luckily he has always tried and tried and I decided to keep him around. My first event with him, I cried the whole way around the cross country as I wasn't sure I was going to be able to ever have the joy of running across the cross country like I did with Griffin. But by the end I knew this horse was going to exceeded every expectation I had hoped for. The next years were a blur. He quickly progressed to the preliminary level and next thing I knew we were on our way to a CCI* long format. At 7 years old he finished 4th and 3rd in the USEF Championship. I have never experienced I high like I did that weekend. The following year he made a successful move up to Intermediate at was ready for the fall CCI** at Fairhill in 2009. Unfortunately the weather Gods got the better of us and I decided not to run XC, but learned a lot about this beautiful sport we all call our own. He was reserve champion at AEC's, and we finished three CCI**'s and finished the Fairhill CCI** National championship twice all while I was a full time college student. He has brought me to knew heights I didn't realize I could accomplish and really has helped me to get my foot in the door in the international scene.  For that I will ever be in debt to him. 

Along with our accomplishments, he has been a ever standing rock in my life. He has taught me to love, taught me to heal and allowed me to succeed. I have met so many amazing people because of the places we have gone together. There are so many people I wouldn't be able to call my friends or role models if it wasn't for my amazing spotted friend. When I think about everything, I  ultimately  laugh. I have at least a week worth of stories that I could share with everyone that would leave everyone laughing a little bit inside. So I just want to say thank you to my lovely spotted friend. I will miss your beautiful eyes and your shoulders that you always let me cry in. I will miss walking to your pasture and calling you and you always coming running. I will miss going to morning hacks and watching the sun come over the mountains. I will miss that feeling of coming through the finish flags and knowing we did it. I will miss laying with you in your stall dreaming of everything else to come. But I am so happy that some else is going to get to experience all that I have been able to. I love you Murph, you will always be my Sparkle.