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[RC] First Horse - Sharlene Roberts-CaudleI'm enjoying these stories so much. I guess I never thought other people were as wacky as I was! My grandfather was a reformed cowboy and listening to his stories and watching Fury, My Friend Flicka, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, and so on, fed my horsemania. My grandfather traded some parakeets for a Shetland when I was in kindergarten. They took the back seat out of the Buick and brought her home in the car. She came with a bridle that was too large, but I carried it to school over my shoulder every day. I never had any tack for her, but went out and climbed on her every day after kindergarten, no halter or rope, and we went where she wanted, as long as she wanted, at whatever speed she wanted! When she tired of me she tossed me off and I learned to roll out from under her feet. I was never hurt, but she nipped my mother on the back. She was in the neighbors' pasture and when they got cows she had to go. I came home and she wasn't there. Afterward I remember actually wanting a horse so much it hurt. I rode the old butane tank many miles--and my tricycle had reins (didn't get a bike until I was 8). My parents bought a donkey for $25 that almost killed me on the first ride. Finally, when I was 12 my parents bought a horse for $100, but no saddle. I learned that when a horse refuses to go forward, you can back him wherever you need to go. My folks later they sold him, don't know why. In highschool I worked and saved my money to buy my own horse--an Appaloosa--for $500, and, finally, a saddle, for $25. Now I'm a grown up and I have 10 horses!!! (and 5 children).
-- Sharlene Roberts-Caudle "A pony is a childhood dream, a horse is an adulthood treasure." ~ Rebecca Carrol
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