Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

The short version:
I'm feeling sad and left out... I have no memory of a first "horse"  
(oil drum, bent sapling, etc).  I think I had the bouncy plastic horse  
that some of you mentioned, but I have no memories of riding it, just  
seeing it broken on the porch years later.

The long version:

I popped out of my momma loving horses, but I had no exposure to them  
for my first four years.  I was 4 when my parents' friend had a  
birthday and we all celebrated by going to a trail riding place.   
Afterwards, I told everyone "I got to ride my very own horse all by  
myself!" and "we jumped a log!".  In reality, I was on a very small  
pony which my mother ponied from her own horse... and we stepped over  
a log on the trail.  ;-)

We went on a few more paid trail rides when I was around 10-12 ("I  
rode a stallion and they said I was a natural!" can be deciphered as  
"I rode a gelding and they told me I wasn't awful").

I wanted to take lessons in high school, and even got approval to  
trade work for lessons, but the barn was too far away to bike to and  
Mom couldn't take time off work to drive me.  There was no car for me  
to drive, even after I got my license.

I got married at 18 and was DYING to take lessons while I was in  
college, but hubby turned out to be a controlling loser and wouldn't  
let me do anything at all, even though I was the only one earning money.

For related reasons, I left him.

I spent a frenzied few months taking lessons and leasing several  
different horses, eating Ramen noodles so I could afford my horse  
habit.  My instructor called me her "million mph student" because I  
wanted to learn everything NOW.  I had so much time to make up!  I was  
in my early 20s and just getting started... which was a disadvantage  
because I KNEW FEAR and I knew it well!  There was no bareback jumping  
for me.  I really think I missed out on some fun times.

I bought my first horse less than a year later, but I sold him 8  
months later.  Come springtime, my 16.2h 19yo ex-race TB decided he  
was a 4yo stud and didn't want anything to do with a puny human.  I  
couldn't handle him anymore except in the barn aisle, and I couldn't  
ride him anymore except in the indoor arena.

I leased again for a while, until I bought Zephyr 6 years ago.  I  
won't even begin to tell you about him, our adventures are already  
chronicled at www.zegifts.com/Stories.htm (grab a cuppa tea, you're  
gonna be there a while).  Suffice it to say that I am making up for  
lost time.

-Sharon L. in Maine
& Zephyr, who decided to impale his hip with a dead branch last night.

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