I sorta stole this from Qui....
Not many people know horses have a distinctive smell, and, if they do, they don't particularly care for it.
To Texans it's as delicious as the smell of that first pot of coffee brewing in the morning.
Thank you for your prayers, TS.
May God keep you and hold you.
Hi Cobby! May your day be filled with one miracle after another, and may your patience endure through the valley.
Hi TC....
They do indeed, TC...
Texas Songwriter, your post to TC was wonderfully descriptive!
At 9 1/2 my family moved from the city of Coral Gables, Florida up to a thousand acres 12 miles from Melbourne, to be centrally located for my father's consulting engineering practice.
Made the transition well, and loved the critters my parents gathered for our enjoyment -- Bessie the cow, Muscovy ducks, two turkeys named Phyllis and Forrest (after two of their best friends); and for two years boarded 8 horses for neighbors who wanted to travel.
Since I'd hung around the horse stable that then was in the center of Coral Gables and loved them, and the summer I was 9 went to a girl's camp in the mountains of SC and learned Eastern style riding, it was a joy to ease into the more comfortable Western saddles and ride when I wanted.
Fast forward to 11, and friends who needed a home for their aging quarter horse -- gave him to me, and he was already named 
Grasshopper - no doubt as agile as one in his heyday...
At the time, there were so few families out where we were, the mailboxes were clustered 3 miles east of us. In the summers, I used to ride Grasshopper there and back (easy on the hooves sand road) to get the mail and the newspaper...
Four years ago, comparing notes on our childhoods, TC revealed at age 10 he had a horse in Texas named Grasshopper!
Factoid #279, Folks:
Rather underpaid, 'e was, though,
featured as December here on this calendar--
~ LadyX ~
And the sound of a barn or stable full of horses munching on a treat of corn is music to the ears.
And I came to hear that music in a cold barn in Nebraska one January day with the temperature outside near zero and horses' breath showing even inside what was a pretty tight barn, with the alfalfa hay in the loft above serving as insulation. Hay I had helped put up there.
Although I've been a Texan longer than I was a Nebraskan, I must say the Texas is not the only place Where the Old West was. Even us Cornhuskers, outside of Omaha anyway, appreciate the smell of horses and leather tack. (our horses were for driving not for riding, mostly anyway) I like horses, but they can be stubborn and contrary beasts... Sort of like some people we know and love.
Since I'm TDY, and the meeting/happy hour lasted until 9Pm local, I'm kinda late tonight. But I hope you had a good day, and will have a better one tommorrow.
Just keep thinking about those horses, and of course all the FRiends who are thinking about you and praying for your fast recovery.