" Every living thing has a past, whether they like it or not. Some are a cleaner slate than others, but that doesn’t make us different in the end. The scars, they’re there even when you can’t see them, and they are present in animals too. Horses, dogs, cats, basically any common animal you can think of and even uncommon like elephants and giraffes, they remember. Their brains can hold memory for even longer than we can. I rescued a horse from a barn that collapsed due to poor maintenance, and time is the only medicine for his gelding. He’s quiet, simple, doesn’t make a fuss, but that’s the thing, he needed to be pushed. It was painful, seeing him stressed, but after the storm, came the calm. The moment I worked with him and showed him I wasn’t here to hurt him but see through the scars, he then opened up. The scars that covered his body had healed, but just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. The invisible scars are always there, no matter if we acknowledge them or choose to ignore them, they do not heal, but animals can learn to trust their scars as a past and not live in fear. So, what I learned this week is that even when something looks like it has no hope, it’s just waiting for a grip on the mountain so it can just continue climbing, even if it lost some progress. I am learning to be that footing, for any animal that enters this property."