Feeling out of place.

It is funny the younger I  was I used to think that the older I got the less I would start to feel out of place.  I think that it is easy to look at someone and think that they have it all together.  But the older I get the more I realize no one has it all together some just tend to hide it better than others.  The older you get the better you get and "looking" like you have it all together but inside we all struggle.  I think if we aren't struggling than we are not bettering ourselves.  To be comfortable is to be stagnate.  I am the type of person that  tries not hide my struggles and it is on purpose.  I feel to not be honest to the people around me about who I am then I am not being honest with myself.  I don't want my children to have the same misconception I did about others having it all together.  I think that can tend to breed insecurities.  I value the ability to be translusent, for others to see me for who I am not who they think I am.
 But there are somethings in the blogger world that bother me about all of this.  I think it is hard to portray a 100% realistic view of ones life when you only post tid bits here and there of your life.  Especially if you don't want to appear to be a negative person you have to be very careful not to always post when you are struggling.  But sometimes words come easier in the midst of a struggle.  So translucencey is hard to be in the social networking world of the internet.

Ok I am not sure where that rant came from because it was not the point of the post.  The whole point was that for some reason I feel out of place in the horsey blog world.  Silly probably but still I thought I would mention it because I would love to hear feed back about it.  There are some pretty fantastic horse blogs out there and I have to say there are a select few I am addicted to reading and cannot wait until their next post.  Out of all of the ones I love to read only one of them is in the same part of the country as me.  So I think that may have alot to do with this thing that I am wondering about.  The one thing though that I see to be so very common.  Actually I think ALL of the blogs I love do this.  BOARD!  It is facinating to me that every one of these blogs board their horse/horses.  I have nothing against it I just am very very curious about it.  I want to know why people board.  I am assuming that there are a hundred different reasons for every one hundred people but I am thinking some of the reasons have to be similar.

I don't board, I never have.  Simply because of cost.  It is more costly for me to board a horse than to keep one at home.  I also love to be able to go out any time of day and just groom, talk to, love on, ride or just look out the window and gaze at them.  Those are the reasons I love to have my horses at home.  Not that there are not down sides to having them here  but I dwell on the positives and try not to think about the negative.  But I can see benefits of boarding.  Like stall cleaning, up keep, repair, barn cleaning, up keep, and repair.  Being able to go out of town because they are fed and cared for in your absence, or the commitment of being the ONLY one feeding/watering.  Pasture care and up keep. Trainer on premisis for lessons and such.  Not having to travel for lessons.  Those are some benefits that I can see but like I said I have not boarded so I really have no idea.  Are those some or any of the reasons?  I also thought maybe it is just different parts of the country it is harder to afford land than it would be to pay board. 

So my questions are do you board because that is what you would rather do or do you board because that is what you have to do?  What are your reasons for choosing to board?  What would be the benefit be of not boarding?  What are the benefits you enjoy because you board?

This kind of feels like an interview but really it is just pure curiosity on my part.  I am intrigued.