Some of you know that a great proportion of my last 40 or so years was spent showing and training horses, and that I still keep one even though I would seriously struggle to ride these days.
My only nephew just lost his 4 week old son, so he asked me if he could take my girl "for a bit", to help distract the other kids and himself. So I agreed, and today my 21 y.o. mare left for a new life in Orange, along with all her gear.
They love her already and I am happy that she will be spoiled and loved, and happy i'm not paying out $90 a month anymore

, but it really hit me hard a bit earlier that I have basically closed the door on a major part of my life, that I will probably never be able to revisit. Even though I didnt ride anymore, having Miz was kind of a denial that my riding days were over, and that I could just go back to it anytime I wanted.
Has this sort of thing happened to any of you guys? I found that my family didnt quite understand where I was coming from.