My first horse was...well, a horse. Mom has a
picture of me the day I came home from the hospital holding me up on the
back of her endurance/ctr arab "Pegs". The weekend after I can home I
attended my first endurance ride, that my brothers and sisters rode in. I don't
know when exactly I was able to ride on my own, but one of mom's favorite
stories to tell was when I was about 2 1/2 - 3 yo. I was riding well enough by
then that she could pony me along. She had two horses at that time that she was
trying to keep conditioned, so she and I would ride to my daycare every morning
about 3 miles away and she would drop me off and then ride back home and go to
work. Well on the way there there was a creek crossing and one morning Pegs
decided to pop across it instead of walk across. She said all she
remembers was looking back and seeing me go head over heels off his rump and
into the creek. So in she walks to the daycare with a dripping wet toddler
telling them that she was going to have to ride back home and then bring some
dry clothes back for me. I guess I learned to endure at a young age. LOL. I rode
Pegs for many years including doing his very last 50 on him when I was 9 yo. Mom
also has some pics of me at an endurance ride when I was about 4. Once everyone
was gone out of camp I decided I was going to ride Pegs bareback around camp. So
I got his hackamore on (keep in mind he's @ 14.3 and I'm barely past his knees)
and had to use a power unit box to get up tall enough to even start jumping on
him. He just stood there the whole time and waited patiently for me to finally
jump high enough to get a leg over his back. He was the best old horse. He was
capable of determining your skill level and acting appropriate for that level. I
could ride him around all day and never have any problem, but if mom was on him
and she broke a curb chain, he was a dead run away.
The first horse I ever had that was actually in my
name was my Anglo gelding Whatta. A good friend gave him to me to use for
endurance and then eventually put the papers in my name and said I could keep
him. He was 8 yo and I was 10 yo. He was still full of energy and quite head
strong and at first we had issues. It all came to a head one day when I was
conditioning him alone, with mom following in the car, and he didn't want
to leave home. I was bawling because he wouldn't do what I wanted
and Mom told me "You better work it out" because if I couldn't control him
she was going to send him back. I guess I was more afraid of losing him than of
whatever tricks his was pulling because we managed to finish that ride and we
came to an understanding and we have 1300+ endurance miles together. I
still have him to this day and he is one of my favorite horses to
ride.
