Avalon to the Rescue
Thursday, July 5, 2007
By: Scherry A. Clarke

Reprinted from FMOnline

After being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I went through the typical anger, self-pity, and hopelessness.

I finally realized that the “Why me?” attitude was ridiculous.

Why not me? Millions of people suffer afflictions, and I certainly have no reason to be exempt.

So, I got down to the serious business of refusing to allow this demon to steal my life away and became partners with the most beautiful Missouri Foxtrotter on the planet. Her name is Avalon, and she challenges me to draw a line in the sand with the sword she has given me and dare fibromyalgia to cross it!

I am challenged to work five days a week so I can afford to keep her, and I am challenged on days when my pain is a white-hot blinding agony, because I must feed, groom, ride and play with her each and every day. She's my obsession, and I'm hers. She's funny, spirited, high-strung, spooky and silly; pretty much my own alter ego in horse form!

When I'm out on trail with her I can leave this world and enter hers, and when I die, “God forbid that I should go to any heaven in which there are no horses” (R.B. Cunninghame Graham).