Foalstory (LJ import)

My Horse History

Part 1: Just trying to get on a horse

I was a difficult child who rarely asked for anything, which made birthdays and Christmas tricky for my mother to figure out. But in my childhood I remember asking for only two distinct things: violin/music lessons and horseback riding lessons. Both were to start when I was eight, but I didn't know this until much later.

When I was sledding when I was seven, I took a horrible spill and landed, on my back, on the top of a mogul. Xrays, er visit and bed rest orders, on the way home from the hospital, my parents decided to tell me that for my eighth birthday I WAS going to get riding lessons, but I couldn't have them now because of the accident. Cruel. So so cruel.

So my years of watching out the car window for horses and crying inside continued. I dreamt of riding, I imagined having my own horse, my own companion, the normal girly dreams. I could count the two pony rides and one trail ride (on what I swear was a mule) in Yosemite but they did very little to satisfy the riding I really wanted to be doing.

When I was eight, we had a rather eventful trip to Mexico -- during which we were walking on the beach where they had trail ride horses picketted. Except there was no clear way around them since the tide was high and the rest was rocky (and we were barefoot). So we made our way down through the lines of horses, me at the end....

at which point something happened and one horse ran backwards INTO me, kicking and slamming my foot between hoof and sand (thankgod for soft sand!). It still hurt like a b*tch and we hobbled over to the nearby Hilton and tried to wash off the blood and figure out wtf I had done. I remember horrid pain, then my parents got the hotel to give us/rent/whatever a room in the unused wing of the hotel where a Doctor met us and gave me a tetnus shot INTO THE BOTTOM OF MY FOOT. (unused wing so I wouldn't scare the guests with my screaming, which I did. LOUDLY.)

And I STILL asked for riding lessons after that, even if I was scared shitless of the backside of horses :P

When I was nine or ten, I *did* get riding lessons. Two of them, to be exact. While I got to trot on my first lesson and even go over trot poles and learn how to kick a horse away from going into the center of the arena …. those lessons were fleeting. The stables was being redeveloped and closing down so all of two lessons before … poof! Gone. And left me wanting so so so much more.

The summer when I was ten, I saw a pamphlet for "San Dominico Riding Stables Horse Camp" in my parents' office. I asked mom about it (!!askED!) but my summer was already booked up. I uncovered it again at the START of summer when I was eleven and permission was finally granted. I was signed up for one week of beginning horse camp.

And so I started my years as a lesson student. Photos and more chapters to follow :)