A Blur of Horses
Since I was a little girl, as far back as my memory can take me, I have had the ‘horse bug’. My Dad and Stepmother had a couple of Shetland ponies for me and my brother when we were 6 and 8. We only got to ride them when we spent our summers with our Dad, but ride them we did! I was constantly messing with the ponies. My brother didn’t take quite the pleasure in them as I did and after one nasty bite on the back he found some other activities to partake in. However, he still enjoyed the massive horse-poo wars we’d have. Bedlam and chaos reigned as a large and rambunctious crowd of neighbor kids gathered on one side or the other in the pony pasture and lobbed dried horse poo at each other. It was great fun, all of it, and when it was time to leave at the end of summer I knew I’d miss the ponies terribly. After a couple of years my Dad and Stepmother moved and there were no more ponies.
As a typical pre-teen girl, my every thought was horses. My brother and I came to live with my Dad and Stepmother permanently, and that’s when I got my first ‘almost’ horse. She was a stocky, snow white Icelandic cross, large pony and I named her Bailey. I loved her dearly and rode her all the time. When we moved from our California home to NY I begged my parents to take my pony. They told me it wasn’t possible so with great sadness we sold her.
And so the horse journey began. As we moved to different parts of the country I would get a new horse. We even moved to New York City and I still managed to finally beg my parents into getting me a horse. Although she was kept upstate NY and a long bus ride away from the city, I managed as a teenager to make the trip out to see her every weekend. Time marched on and the horses passed in and out of my life. There were years of no horses and then I’d have one for a few years. The moves were always the hardest and since I didn’t own a horse trailer, I’d find my horse a good home, make my move and get another horse.
Eventually I got married a second time, after a quick but unpleasant practice run, and settled into a more permanent residency. My oldest daughter was 8 and my youngest daughter 2 and I was ready and itching to get a horse again. Bailey (yes, another one) was an impulse buy. She was the first horse I went to look at and I came home with her and a new puppy (honestly, how could one resist the adorable puppy face of a black lab-border collie mix??). Bailey was great fun to ride in the pasture, safe for my oldest daughter and even my husband! But out on the trail – she was a nut. Two speeds – jig and fast. So Bailey eventually got passed on to a nice lady who treated her more like a big pet than a horse and she lived out the rest of her years as the family pet.
After Bailey there followed a string of horses; Moon, Mocha, Puddles, Sage, Dancer and Ace. Some we kept for several years. Sage and Dancer still live with my husband, who now happens to be an ‘ex’. I thought Moon was going to be my perfect horse. He was so cool looking, snow white with pink skin and a muscled QH body to die for. Often he was mistaken for an American White. I loved cleaning him up and taking him on Poker rides where he stood out in his blindingly ‘white’ fashion. Unfortunately Moon didn’t have enough pizzazz for me. He liked to plod along and I always had to peddle him into that canter. No matter how much I worked with him, no matter how many lessons and training sessions we took together, he just never wanted to give me more than the bare minimum. So with some sadness, I sold him. Sometime in-between Moon and Ace, I picked up a little black mustang-cross colt with a blue eye. He was only 9 months old, had some unfortunate mishap with his handling that made him scared to death of people and was dirt cheap. I’m not sure why I bought him except I felt a little bad for him and I liked the icy blue eye. He became the auxiliary horse in the pasture, a cute little guy, but my focus was on Moon and the others we were riding. I called the little guy Hershey. Eventually, Hershey started to grow. And grow and grow. By the time he was 2 he was almost 16 hands and looked like a Dutch Warm blood. My interest started to perk up and I spent a little time breaking him to ride. Hershey changed me. He carried me like I was a fly on his back. Everything was effortless for him. He was big and bold and moved with grace and speed. I started riding Hershey more and more.
Today, more than 8 years later, my one and only horse is Hershey. He gives me the best ride of any horse I’ve ever had. He jumps anything, has amazing lateral movements, suppleness, collection and presence. He’s faster than most horses when we do an all out run on the beach. He rarely spooks and when he does it’s not the spin and bolt kind. Traffic, dogs, kids, hikers, bikers and campers don’t bother him. He loves to trailer, loves to go places and loves me. With all that being said, he has his host of issues that we work on. When super frustrated he will rear. He has never fallen because he’s too athletic but it’s a nasty habit. He doesn’t do it often and we had to have some help with that problem. He doesn’t do Poker Rides anymore. Too slow, too many horses and he gets anxious and frustrated – hence commences a possible rearing episode. He walks faster than most horses so we need to be in the lead on most rides. And he doesn’t like to stand around, he always wants to ‘get a move on it!’ He also likes to nudge me in the ribcage and he’ll scream at me if he sees me riding another horse while he’s in his stall. But he’s unique and I know him and what he’ll do most of the time. In all the years I’ve had him he has never bucked me off. I only came off of him once when I purposefully jumped – another story that reminded me of my human limitations – and it cost me a dislocated shoulder.
I still ride other horses, some as work, some out of obligation and responsibility (my youngest daughter’s horse – to keep her exercised). But none are like my Hershey. When you find that special horse and then invest years of time together you forge a bond of trust, companionship and love. I couldn’t imagine giving up Hershey, even if I had to move back to NYC! He has become a part of my life, strongly intertwined with my daily routine, and when I need to let my spirits soar or just get away from the burdens of daily life, I know I can head out to Hershey and ride my worries away.
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