Thanks for your comments, I appreciate them.
My dismay is not aimed at the true horse people that care, but the ones who do
it for ego, and a horse is just a means to get a feather in THEIR
caps.
I have my own great horse experiences and memories
also, and am still making some, as you are. Don't feel sad for me, feel
sad for the horses that are abused by egotistic maniacs who don't take the time
to condition, and don't listen to their horses.
Well Debbie, you letter made me
laugh some, but most of all it made me sad. You see, I had a stallion,
Fa Al Badi+/, that I rode for 3500 miles in endurance and he loved nothing
better. When I retired him after winning a two day in the hot TX summer,
it broke my heart. But I had younger horses to start in endurance, and I
could not ride them all.
He would be so sad when we left for a ride without him. Once,
he got loose and I couldn't find him. He was in the horse trailer!
He was like a dog, who is first to jump in the back of a pickup truck.
I miss him
terribly; I miss our bond. I miss the memories we will no longer
make. I cannot describe to you the feeling of riding over Sherman's Gap
on the Old Dominion at 2am on our first 100 and our agreement made
there: I could ride him up anything, but I must get off and walk down
the hills.
Or how we snuck behind the first
place rider for two miles and then, when there was only one mile left, I let
him fly, and we won the IAHA regional championship by a
nose.
The time I cried in his long black
mane because he got a cramp and was pulled at the finish for
lamenss.
I could go on and
on....
And I know there are many people on
ridecamp who are saying "yeah, Louise, I KNOW how you feel.
All these things, Debbie, you will
never know. And that makes me sad.
