My darling,

I’ve gotten hurt before.

My past is littered with traumas. I healed, but that old pain lingered. I ached. There was a shadow over everything I did, and I thought I would never be the same again. I thought I was permanently damaged, that it was just something I would have to live with. A burden I’d simply have to bear. I thought I was broken.

But then you came along.

You are so different from the others. Countless times I’ve reached out, looking for comfort. Looking for relief. Others made promises but gave me nothing. I’ve been let down, time and again. Thinking I had found a solution to my pain, but feeling nothing.

I’m not proud to say this, but I was almost ready to turn to drugs. I thought it was my last resort. That the only way for me to find happiness was to medicate away my misery.

Then I found you!

You changed everything. You wrapped me in your warmth and my aches were gone. There was nothing you could not soothe. It was like a new beginning for me.

Some days, you are the only reason I can get out of bed.

Without you, I could hardly make it through a long day without falling apart.

At night, I fall asleep wrapped in your embrace.

What’s more, your way with animals leaves me speechless. Never have I seen anything like what you do. With your touch, a fat leg is righted, a sore back is supple, a stiff hock is mobile again. Say what you want about ceramic textile fabric, but I know it is magic.

I know I could never be your one and only. I understand that.

It would be selfish of me to ask. But I just had to tell you what you mean to me.

I love you. There, I said it.

I don’t care if that’s weird. No one has ever made me feel like you do.

I wear your socks to bed. When my elbow flares up, I slide on your brace for a couple days and it’s like it never happened. My wrists are perpetually encased in your sweet hold. Any part of my body that hurts only needs your magic touch to feel good again.

The horses, and the dogs—they love you too. And I love you even more for all that you do for them. Without injections, or medicated creams, you heal and soothe. It’s amazing.

I know you probably don’t feel the same about me, and that’s okay.

All I ask, all I will ever need, is to have a long relationship with you. Because I need you in my life, Back On Track.


About the Author

Morgan Withers is a professional groom on the “A” circuit who has been there and done that and then done that and been there some more for good measure.