Heh heh, great stories Angie. When I was about 12, I used to take care of horses for people at the local stable, and did grooming and exercising etc. Before you know it, I had about 8 horses at my disposal. And to think I was not allowed by my dad to ride horses, as I might break my neck. Him being a former CC Corp cowboy during WWII, was sent along with some other boys to a ranch in New Mexico to work cattle, while the men went to war. Kinda like John Wayne and the movie, "The Cowboys". So he knew the pitfalls of riding! But his mistake was, that I had the horse gene...bad. He told me if I did my chores all week, I could go to the rental stable on Saturday for an hour. Hello, I knew what a plug was at the age of 12! I figured (logically) that if I rode my 8 horses all week, and got in trouble on Saturday, it was a better deal. I was never allowed lessons, but snuck up on the rich kids, and eavesdropped on their lessons. Ha..the trainer knew, he gave me 3 horses to work. We had an old pony that was made to jump, an old show mare, a bad quarter horse gelding who used to run away, a barrel racer, a couple arabs, two tennesee walkers (matching black), an arab yearling, a palomino yearling--destined for the rose parade, a green mustang, two bad matching rearing shetlands, a 16.3 jumping pinto, a jumping TB off the track, and my very very favorite, a 16.3 Jet Black Polo pony, thoroughbred, named Blue. Blue set the standard by which all other horses have been measured. He was too tall for me to saddle as were most of the horses, plus I didn't have a saddle except for one the trainer got at Santa Anita from the jockeys. It had duct tape on it, and that was the kids' English saddle. I used to take Blue with my girl friends to the highschool track and race (bareback)! He was like a jet rocket blasting off. We also raced on the dirt road along the street (now paved), on this big flat flood drainage "plateau", (now developed), and up a long dirt road leading to a ranch (Now built with houses). Ah what a childhood. It was heaven.
Beth Glover (p.s I guess that's more than 8
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