Baggage
by Evelyn Colbath

Now that I'm home, bathed, settled and fed,
All nicely tucked into my warm new bed,
I would like to open my baggage,
Lest I forget
There is so much to carry -
So much to forget.

Hmm, Yes, here it is, right on the top
Let's unpack Loneliness, Heartache and Loss,
And there by my halter hides Fear & Shame
As I look on these things I have tried so hard to leave-
I still have to unpack my baggage called Pain.

I loved them, the others, the ones who left me,
But I wasn't good enough - for they didn't want me.
Will you add to my baggage?
Will you help me unpack?
Or will you just look at my things
And take me right back?

Do you have the time to help me unpack?
To put away my baggage,
To never re-pack?
I pray that you do - I'm so tired you see,
But I do come with baggage -
Will you still want me?

as high tide came in.  

With every crash of the waves

he noticed that dozens of seahorses were being cast onto the beach, 

where they lay gasping and squirming.  

Hurriedly, he ran to each seahorse he could find 

and gently tossed them back into the surf.  

A man watching all this approached the boy and said; 

"Son, what you are doing won't make a difference", 

to which the boy replied, 

"To that seahorse . . . it will".

Some folks said they missed my great goals list for 2010, so here it is back again

1. Spend an hour a day with your horses, not just feeding, training and turning out, but real quality time doing something that is enjoyable for the both of you. Grooming or hand walking is a great way to bond with your horse and good for both you and the horse.

2. Get your loved ones more involved in your horses. Divorce is the biggest reason we see horses coming back to us. Don't just share the work, share the fun too and find something they really enjoy doing with horses.

3. Learn a new discipline, go to a clinic, a horse show, or equine affaire. Come to one of our clinics or watch a training video. If you are an adopter you can check out books and video's from SWAP's Library for just shipping costs. Take a lesson at least once a month or Bring your adoption horse here and we will help you. The better you are, the more fun you will have.

4. Make a plan for your horse after you are gone or if you have a major injury, let your Will Executor know your plans. Make a plan for emergencies or financial bumps along the way for your horse. Have a plan if you or your horse gets injured, even for the tough times of year like winter (or summer down south and for a drought winter when hay prices skyrocket). Ask friends, family and neighbors to be part of your plan, most people that don't have horses or a farm love the idea of getting away and helping. And people can not resist someone when they are asking for help for the welfare of an innocent animal.

5. Get yourself healthy and in better shape to prevent injury, to live a long life and to more enjoy your horses. Eat 1-1-1 (one ounce of dark chocolate, one ounce of fresh walnuts, one glass of red wine daily) and 2-2-2 (2 servings of fresh vegis, 2 of fresh fruit and get 2 sources of fat free calcium). Drink 100 ounces of spring water a day, get a whole house water filter. Change over to Sea-salt. Take one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar every morning to keep your body alkaline (cancer and disease can not grow in an alkaline body). Eat more fish and chicken and less red meat. Get a good air cleaner and do daily deep breathing exercises, get outside in the fresh air and sunshine for at least 1/2 hour every day. Get away from high fat food, processed foods, fast food, can or boxed food, sugar or artificial sweeteners, soda and don't eat anything if you can't read all the ingredients and know exactly what is in it. Clean all vegis and fruits thoroughly, buy organic, buy ocean caught fish, not farm raised, buy fresh meat and raw milk, not packed or processed. Eat only natural carbs (potatoes, rice, oats) bake/broil or steam everything. Get 8 hours of sleep, reduce stress/risk (reduce commuting by car pooling, tight schedules, cell phone use in the car, watch or read the news only once a day or better yet once a week. Do one hour of walking, yoga or weight training every day and it will make you strong, lean, you'll look great and get wonderful complements from friends, coworkers and loved ones and the horse work will be easier and more enjoyable.

6. Stay clear of negative people and those very negative chat rooms and bulletin boards, they seem innocent but every time you go to them you lose a bit of your positive self, they are truly emotional vampires that will leave only a shell of a person. They are not based on the truth, they are based on harassment, complaining, whining and dishonesty. We all become tomorrow what we are around today, every person we come in contact with defines who we are tomorrow so be careful who you choose for friends, even the websites you go to as each of them affect who you are tomorrow. Do you want to be a bitter, miserable, complaining person or do you want to be happy, inspired and honorable, all that is affected by the decisions you make today. Stay away from Toxic people and Toxic websites/forums that are negative or that spend all their time talking bad about people and their horses. What you are around today and what you are doing today is what you will be tomorrow. Stop Complaining and be Thankful for what you have. If you become a target of harassment or anyone saying anything negative about you, if you are doing only good, positive things and not hurting anyone then ignore them, its all based on jealousy and a sick sort of wish to be like you. They have the problem, not you.

7. Read at least one book on training your horse and one on care each year, if for nothing else but just inspiration. SWAP has a great library of books/videos that adopters can check out for just the cost of mailing it. Click here to see our Library

8. Get carrots/apples every time you go to the store, your horses will love you for it and always come running when you call. Don't feed candy or anything sweeter. Carrots are sweet enough. Get rid of the sweet feeds and you'll get rid of the hot horse once and for all.

9. Realize that if you are having a problem with your horse, more likely than not, the problem is you. Learn more, practice more, ask in a different way, be patient, change their environment or daily schedule to better suit them. Taking better care of a horse always brings out the best in that horse.  Good feed/hay, time to rest in a quiet stall out of the elements, lots of fresh water, time to be with you and time to just be a horse, time with their buddies, farrier and vet care always done is a good start. The biggest part of this relationship puzzle is you, not the horse. If you are struggling, then you need to learn more and get better.

10. Ride at least once a week, regardless of weather. Use this time as your down time for healing, your therapy, your time to relieve stress and the pressures of daily life. Even if you don't ride, go sit and read a book in the pasture with the horses or sit in the barn and listen to them munch on dinner, away from the crowd and noise of your day. Enjoy the peace and quiet, enjoy hearing happy horses eating dinner or grass in the pasture.

11. Spend time leisurely grooming your horse once a week. Rubber curries are shine makers. You will have a beautiful horse and a very loyal friend who will do anything for you.

12. Come and spend a week at SWAP HQ, volunteering and focusing on helping a horse and giving will change your life plus it will be the best vacation you ever had. Help an animal in need, whether fostering, being one of our state reps that goes out to check on our horses in their homes or helps us approve adopters in their area. Find horses in need and help us find them homes. Buy a horse at a slaughter auction, get it fat and trained and we'll help you place it into a good home. Foster and volunteer for your local small animal adoption program. I promise, the good things you do will come back to you a hundred times over. Every person has a talent they can offer and if you help one horse or one dog or cat find a good home, you have changed their life forever. 

13. Know that every goal is obtainable and it starts with a single step. Take that first step today!! No matter what it is or how big, YOU CAN DO IT!! Every goal that is written down will come true (really!). Every famous person, every great or notable scientist, author, trainer/rider, parent or friend started out as just a thought, just a goal. Remember to take one step today to reach your goals.

14. Start every day with thinking about, what is the most important thing I can do today to change my life and make it better. Do that one thing and in 30 days your life will be totally different. Can you imagine what your life would be like if you did that for 60, 90 or even 365 days a year. The opportunities are endless.

15. Want to keep your horse sound for life? (That should be every horse owners number one goal) do a long slow warm up (cold muscle is easy to injure, a warm one is nearly impossible to injure). The very best cool down is hand walking your horse for 1 hour after every work out. Yes, get off the horse and walk with it. Its great exercise for you and a good time for you to bond. Stop riding your horse during cool downs and stop using a hot walker, do something good for you and the horse, hand walking. Its also the best rehab for over work and injuries, the only thing better is hydro therapy and swimming your horse. Allow soft tissue and hard tissue to become more conditioned before going into any training program... that means 3 months of at least 3 days a week for soft tissues and 10 months of work for bones to become strong enough to jump or do any strenuous training program. Don't start any upper level work, jumping or extensive training until the horse is fit and at least between age 4 and 6 and has been conditioned for at least 10 months (especially if the horse has never been jumped/worked or not been jumped or worked in the last year).

16. Appreciate what you have and be thankful. Instead of looking at what you don't have, look at what you do. Thank those people who have helped you and supported you. The more you give, the more that will come back to you. When you give something away or give something to someone/something in need, you make space in your life for something good to come to you. We are all very blessed, if we just take a moment to look around and enjoy those things.

17. Get used to using favorite mantra's and visualizations every day, simple ones that are easy to remember, like 'I can do this, I will do this', 'this isn't going to get the best of me' or even, 'I deserve the best' or 'the gift of love, caring, and support always comes back' and take two minutes every morning as you wake and at night as you go to sleep to visualize the life you want, the you you want to be,  Our thoughts become things, what you see is what you get, if you expect the best, the best will happen, change your self-talk from negative to positive and I promise your life will change for the better..

18. Each person is put on this earth for a reason, each of us has a mission. What is yours? Seek and you shall find, finding is a journey ... in the journey and the search you'll find your life purpose. If you died in your sleep tonight is there something you haven't done that you need to do or want to do? Someone you need to mend fences with, burnt bridges to fix? People you need to tell them how much you love them? Have you fulfilled your purpose in your life? Ask yourself, Why am I here? How can I make this better?  Who do I want to be? Who am I suppose to be? What reason was I put on this earth? What is my purpose?

19. Be an inspiration to your family, co workers and friends. We all fall on our face, we all make mistakes, we all get discouraged, most times we all get up and try again.... sometimes we need a nudge. Instead of being negative or doing negative things, be their inspiration. You do believe they can do it, so why not tell them. If their self talk is negative, then you be their positive self talk.... eventually they will start to say it and believe it too. Life is self fulfilling, failure feeds on itself or causes more failure, achieving does as well. So if you or your love ones are in a negative cycle, break the cycle by changing your thoughts, your self talk, achieve something small to get yourself and your family back into the cycle of achievement.

20. We all file a flight plan every single day for our life. Where is your flight going today? Just like a pilot flying, the winds, the gravitational pull will change your flight and take you off course, so you must make small corrections along the way to make sure you make your destination. Have you selected your destination? Have you picked the steps in your flight plan to get there? Every goal is really that easy, pick the goal and figure out how to get there. The easiest way to pick your flight path/plan is find someone who has done it before you, then do what they did. Its all baby steps you know. Just keep an eye on that destination and keep saying...."here is my destination, this is where I'm going, this is where I am now, this is how I'm going to get there.... I will arrive at this time on this day. You can do it..... its just like getting in your car to go to the store, its just deciding where you want to go and how to get there, then take that first step. You can do it!!  No matter how big or how outlandish you may think your dream to be... it is obtainable.

21. Laugh every day and try (as hard as it is sometimes) to find the positive and the humor in each situation (and have at least one bite of a truly decadent desert once a week). Life is just too short to not enjoy it thoroughly.

22. We learn the most and do our best work when we have fallen on our face, when we are struggling, when we are worried, scared or frustrated, when we are anguishing over something or troubled by it. It is then that you have true motivation, when you think clearer. The most brilliant ideas come to people when they feel lost, frustrated, or at the bottom, helpless or hopeless. Cherish these times because its when you can come up with your best ideas to your biggest problems and challenges. You see, there is a reason for the rainy days.

23. You can't make everyone happy, its useless to try and wasted energy to think you can. 50% of all people will not agree with you at any given time, don't worry about it and don't let it stop you. 50% becomes a lot of people when you are in the public eye. As long as you are not hurting anyone and you are doing the right thing, then go ahead and do it. If you are wondering what is the right thing to do, its usually the harder thing to do, the toughest path to take. The easy way out is rarely the right thing to do.  Instead of worrying over what someone thinks of you or says about you, do something amazing and outstanding to inspire them or at least have them sitting on the side lines being jealous, secretly saying, "wow, she has guts". One person with purpose becomes the majority, one way or another.

Always in hope and admiration, Celeita