“It’s not really about the horses, is it?”

No, no it’s not.

That’s the thing about this documentary about a boy horribly abused by his father who grows up to embody compassion, kindness and generosity of spirit. It’s not really about the horses. It’s about the resiliency of this man.

I sobbed my eyes out watching the documentary Buck.

Like some serious ugly-cry crying. Thank goodness for Netflix Watch Instantly – boy, this would have been much uglier in public.

What can I say? Kindness of this degree brings me to my knees.

We have a lot in common, me and this guy. Childhood harms that could have turned us into monsters {or at the very least really damaged people continuing the abuse} and yet we both have sought a path to change how the harsh world operates.

At one point, Buck says, “Horses are the mirrors to our souls.”

Not being a horse girl {though my eight year old self would have loved to have been} I would argue so are children. They hold up a mirror to all of our ugly places and unflattering traits, the ones the other adults in our lives rarely see because they are too caught up in hiding their own.

Children (and horses) just keep giving us lesson after lesson about kindness, compassion, generosity and living in the moment. In other words, the lessons we need to keep practicing until they become second nature.

So while on the surface this seems to be a horse movie, it really is about making a life worth living.