For several years I worked with a program that partners with horses to offer physical, emotional, and mental health services to help people enhance and improve their lives. My friend Janet started Hold Your Horses with Lily, a Haflinger/Fjord mare whose sturdy conformation and solid disposition created the perfect foundation for a program that will, as of last weekend, carry on without its Princess Pony in the front paddock.

Lily was not my favorite horse in the barn (heart hug to the Tiny White Administrator), but I loved her. I had great respect for her work ethic, her sense of self and her sassafrass attitude.

Lily carried many of our most challenging clients with kindness and patience, even after she developed health issues of her own. Her devoted care team went to great lengths to make sure Lily lived the best life possible, and she did the same for her clients.

Lily was a true workhorse, but she was also a party animal. She donned costumes, loved little girls in pink, farted during therapy sessions and rocked a forelock beehive.

I have a picture of her in my family room, sitting on a shelf so that during my Mountain Pose I look directly at her face, peeking between the rails of her paddock, and think about what I learned from Lily.

Don’t be afraid. Of thunder booms or soap bubbles or boys in hotdog costumes.

Do your job. Even when your feet hurt.

Eat a healthy diet. But every once in a while, enjoy a little shugah.

Be you. That bristle-brush mane in a herd of silky-smooths is awesome. Believe that.

Surround yourself with a team you can trust, so when you absolutely, positively have to stop drop and roll to scratch that itch, you know they’ll have your back.

Contribute as much as you can whenever you can for as long as you can.

Do what needs to be done, but seize the occasional opportunity to pull free of that longe line and gallop to the far end of the pasture.

Bring joy. Find joy.

Love. Know that you are loved.

Be like Lily.

To learn more about Lily’s legacy, please check out www.holdyourhorses.org.