From the time
I was a year and a half old, all I wanted to be was a "horsey rider".
From Pre-school to my College graduation my most favorite drawing subject
was horses. I began my riding career at age 7 at a local farm in Maryland.
I quickly progressed from walk, trot, canter, to cross rails.
When I moved to NJ at age 10, I moved
from barn to barn for one of 2 reasons: 1) the barn would go out of business
or 2) they would not have a horse my size (small) that could jump. Over
the years I begged my parents for a horse of my own, with the answer always
a resounded NO. So I filled my life with many Breyer Horses as substitutes
for the real thing.
At age 12, after the 1 millionth request,
my father tells me that if I graduate from college, he will buy me a horse.
There are many times I am sure he wishes I forgot this promise, but no
such luck. I reminded him all the time of his promise and as the years
passed , and college graduation drew close, he became more and more nervous
about how much the long ago promise was going to cost him. I could have
had any horse I wanted (within reason), but I had my heart set on a spunky
little paint a friend of mine owned. Sundance is a half paint/half mustang
from Wyoming with little formal training but a natural love of jumping.
So Sundance was raised to the illustrious
position of being my first horse. With him I showed in Jumper classes,
and in 1993, was introduced to Dressage, which I have been doing ever
since. Unfortunately, crappy farriers and an inexperienced owner contributed
to his contracting Navicular, cutting his blooming Dressage career short.
After many crying fits, I retired Sundance and decided to start my search
for my next Dressage prospect. I picked a price range and looked at everything
in that range to no avail.
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