I used to ask Santa every single year for a horse, and Santa was always a disappointment. When I would run outside on Christmas morning, there was never a pony. Not even a miniature-lawn-ornament pony, and every year I would cry. I fell asleep almost every night with my horse encyclopedia close at hand. I used to beg my mom for a pony. I didn't understand how expensive horses are, and I wanted one so badly. When I was four years old, I had a dream that I was a pony, and I told my mom that I should have been born a horse. She will never let me forget these things.
My mom used to take me on some birthdays to go trail riding. We would go with my cousins and siblings and closest little girl friends, and get on these horse that had glazed eyes, and knew only to walk nose to tail. Still, I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. I even got my horse to trot once or twice, which, as a little horse-obsessed girl, is the most exciting thing ever. We never had the money for me to take real lessons or to have my own pony, though I would beg, trail rides once every other year or so was the best we could do.
The horse craze lasted until I was 12 or so. Some disagree with me on that point, though. I say, the craze ended then. I learned to contain my absolute and utter love for horses and act like a normal human being before I finished middle school.
Now I am 21. It's been a long time, but finally I've begun to make my childhood dream come true. Last week, I went to a stable with my best friend Julie, met with an instructor, and made an appointment for a lesson. The lady's name is DeDe. She's very nice, and she asked lots of questions about what we wanted to learn and how we felt about horses, and talked us through the things we're going to learn. Afterward she introduced us to her horses. She has five horses she uses for lessons: Lola, a little white mare, Luca, a bay Thoroughbred gelding, Pandora, a huge Percheron-Friesian cross mare, and a grey Arabian and a chestnut Tennessee Walking Horse whose names I forget- I only met them briefly.
Yesterday we had our first lesson. DeDe taught us to lead and groom Lola, and showed us how to tack her up. She showed us how to cue Lola to walk, trot, and canter on the lunge line first, and then had us mount and ride. I'll talk more about it in another post.
I don't have any pictures of me riding, since Julie took pictures of me with her phone. I do have a couple of her riding, though. I'm super excited to go back, and I'm hoping to be able to take more than one lesson next week- crossing my fingers!
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