The smell of poop in the morning

Anya's blanket was crooked this morning and so I went out "just to fix it." Which turned into a good half hour's worth of time spent out with her. The sun was just starting to come up. The stars were beginning to fade. I stood with her a few minutes after fixing her blanket and just laid my head on her neck, smelling her. I wonder if it takes a certain love of horses to be able to just relish in that smell. Or if there are people out there who would think I was crazy for sniffing my horse. There's just something about that horsey smell that relaxes me.

I piddled around a little bit, checked on her water, gave her a cookie, and just stood and pet her. The sun started coming up over the horizon into the sky. There was a soft wind, cool but not too cold, and the smell of horse poop and horse lingered on the breeze. Maybe it's not so crazy to like the smell of a horse if you like the smell of horse poop, too.

For those few moments in time, the sun rising slowly, brilliantly into the sky, the smell of horse, and my horse standing at my side watching the sun with me... It's a moment like no other. Just a peaceful, quiet, beautiful start to the day. I briefly wondered what it would be like to be out on the plains, waking up like that every morning. It felt like we were the only two beings in the world, and the sun was rising just for us.

I have no idea what she was thinking. Probably something along the lines of "gee where's breakfast?" But maybe just for a minute as she nuzzled my arm she thought, "There's nothing like the smell of warm human in the morning."