A year ago when I drove down the dirt road to check on Cricket, she was being eaten alive by flies. She had no water, no grass, no shade, no companionship, and no freedom of movement. There’s not much for a horse to do when she’s chained to a tree next to an animal hoarder’s ramshackle house.

Fast forward to today. I’m working on my deck that overlooks the horse pasture inhabited by Noah, Haddie, Crystal, Star….and Cricket. Yep: she’s been here for over a month, and expresses her joy by being the most active horse on the property. Despite a permanent injury and a deep scar around her fetlock from the heavy chain, Cricket offers us all a wonderful lesson in letting go. One minute she’s rolling, the next she’s splashing in the pond, and the next she’s grazing nose to nose with Haddie, her special pal. In the evenings, she gallops from one end of her large pasture to the other….just because she can. Every confident and exuberant minute she spends is an expression of her joy in this new life.