A Little Horse Story

A little horse story. 

As a child I loved horses. I grew up watching horses at the movies, and pretending to ride one each time we traveled across the country to a new home. As enamored as I was with horses, I never actually rode one until I was about thirteen. 

Instead, when I was ten the girl who lived across the street from me, and I would play horses. She had a nice collection of toy horses, and I learned words like Appaloosa, and Palomino, as I pretended they were real.  One Christmas I got my own toy horse, a brown and white beauty, that I treasured. 

My first actual horseback riding experience didn't really go all that well. A friend I'd met at school took me to a place in Waxahachie that pretty much looked like the glue factory. Of course, that would never be a term used today, but those horses were pretty much used up. Except, I didn't care one bit. My romance with all things horses had come true until they put me on one. 

Let's just say I basically spent the entire time riding the fence line as the horse made his way back to the corral time and time again. The man who worked there would slap the horse, and send it back to the pasture, and it would turn around, and head back. I learned on a return visit to request a more docile horse. They gave me a sweet mare who was easy to handle, and I enjoyed getting to ride her the few times we went back. 

My next door neighbor accompanied us once, and she must have had some prior experience because she rode a horse that could actually gallop. My horse seemed quite content to move at a slower pace, and I could never get her to go faster than a trot. On one particular visit I convinced my friend to let me ride her horse because I wanted to be able to "ride like the wind." Let's just say that I was never able to get that horse to stop, and had to dismount while he was still moving. My horse looked better and better!

As an adult I've only ridden a horse a handful of times, and primarily on a trail while vacationing. The last time was in Colorado when Brittany was in middle school, and although I  handled the horse well, I was afraid I had a permanent case of bow-leggedness when I finished the ride.  

After my love of horses from afar, you can imagine how tickled I was to see a video of my two year old grandson riding a horse that his grandparents from Virginia had brought him last week. He was sitting on the same saddle that his Dad has used as a young child, and he looked quite pleased with himself. His Pop was leading Lilly, his horse, and his Dad was right there beside him cheering him on as he always does. A picture was snapped of three generations of horsemen.

That sure is one lucky boy, and I couldn't help but think how my dream of owning a horse, had come true a few generations later. I know it won't be too much longer that he will be handling Lilly all on his own, and he too will be riding like the wind!