I went for a little ride on my horse today. You know when it sometimes gets to that point, when every single area of your life is spilling over the sides of its neat little box, and you need a nice extra empty box to climb into for a bit? Well, that box is the one with my horse in it. That’s the one where I can close the lid, keep all the noisy, stressful, messy other things on the outside, and take a long, calm breath. In theory. 

Today’s reality, however, was somewhat different. Lifting the lid of the nice empty box today, I found a rather bolshy, stubborn, overexcited horse who was clearly not as enthusiastic as I was about going for a little ride. In fact, he wasn’t that keen to come in from the field at all. Although he did a good impression of being at least reluctantly compliant for the 20 minutes it took me to walk up a steep hill, find and catch him, and lead him back down the hill to the gate. It was only when I was at the point of leading him through the gate that he realised he wasn’t, after all, all that keen to get into my nice empty box. A fact he demonstrated quite clearly by galloping back off at high speed to the top of the hill. 

Up to that point, I’d been moping about various messy items in various other boxes. Not that I’m looking to excuse his behaviour, but I probably wasn’t paying full attention to the horse in hand. Right up to the point at which I didn’t, any longer, have a horse in hand that is. Then I was jolted rudely into the present, and into another 20 minute hilly hike. So I guess his behaviour might have distracted me from the other messy boxes in a way, even if it wasn’t quite the quiet and relaxing escape I’d had in mind. 

And even if there was a point, a little bit later, when we were off on our little ride, when I found myself explaining to a grown man that flying a drone around a field within a few feet of a slightly skittish horse was a) not likely to end well for either of us, and b) a ridiculous way for an adult to spend a Sunday afternoon (ok, so I said that last bit inside my head). But the nice empty box is supposed to be the one I can get into for a bit of respite from the whole ‘am I going to die?’ thing. Although, death by drone would definitely be an interesting way to go.

On reflection, though, I think I did get what I needed today. It turns out I wasn’t really in the frame of mind to tune out, and relaxing wasn’t, after all, that relaxing. Stresses of a very different kind, however, did distract me from the ones that have been preoccupying my mind recently. So now, thanks to an uncontrollable horse and a bit of a stressful day, I’m all refreshed and ready to face the week. Bring it on.