A long, long time ago, I bought my first horse after years of being horse crazy, three consecutive summers of attending a week of Girl Scout camp where I did the Horse Camp option (the third year earning my way to camp by selling enough cookies to go at no charge to my parents, who'd told me they couldn't afford camp that year and I'd have to sell 300+ boxes of cookies to qualify for the week of camp to be 'free'-- I was an incredibly shy kid but I managed to knock on every door in a 5-mile radius of our house and take orders for cookies as long as my parents put up the time and gas money to drive me further than I could walk), and months and months of begging my parents to let me buy a horse. They finally said "IF you can find a horse for the amount of money in your savings account, we'll think about letting you buy it."
And so I did. After having a prepurchase exam done on him, he was delivered into my ownership on Labor Day weekend 1984.
The rest, as they say, is history.
My first horse, an 8 year old purebred registered Arabian
(with a tail that had been partially amputated after an injury a year or so prior to when I bought him).
I was twelve, almost thirteen when I got my horse. I think my parents figured horses were just a typical phase little girls go through, and that in a year or so I would grow out of it and we'd sell the horse and all the horse gear and be done. They even put up stipulations I had to meet in order to keep the horse:
- Maintain at least a B average in school (I'd been an Honor Roll student all through school up to that point)
- Take riding lessons so I'd learn to ride safely
- Join 4-H and do the horse program
The first requirement was not an issue for me; I got good grades because I liked learning and school was something that (with the exception of multiplying and dividing fractions) had always come easy to me. Five school years later I graduated in the top 10% of over 330 students in my graduating class.
The second and third requirements, instead of pushing me away from horses (like maybe my parents secretly hoped), just sucked me in further. So much to learn! I couldn't get enough! I went from learning to ride well on my first horse, to selling him and breaking out not just the next horse I bought (paid for with the earnings from the first horse, which I sold for more than I'd paid for him, but also by months and months of cleaning stalls for the lady I bought him from--my trainer) but also the young horse my mom bought in 1987 intending it to be her own horse.
In addition to joining 4-H and being extremely active there, I was one of the founding members of my high school equestrian team, which finally got approved and became a real thing my junior year.
My second horse, a 7/8 Arabian, 1/8 Quarter Horse I bought as a coming three year old
and then trained under saddle both western and hunt seat.
My Mom's horse, which ended up being too quick for her;
which I then started to teach to run barrels but never quite finished
(In the above pictures I'm 3 months pregnant with my first son; the reason why we soon scrapped the barrel racing training and the mare sat for over a year unridden.)
Then there was a haitus in ownership for several years, most of which I continued working at horse farms but not owning a horse of my own and not riding much. I had met and married DH and then popped out babies #2 and #3 in rapid succession. A week before baby #4 arrived, we became the owners of a pony I'd known from back in my 4-H days. He was in his late 20s by then and ready to be retired from the showring. So he became a backyard pony my kids loved on and learned to ride on.
The Pony
When my youngest child was 3, the barn owner I was then working for, was looking to downsize her (very large) herd of Holsteiners. She offered me the choice of one of three she would sell for the same price. All mares, all in the 10-12 year old range, all very green broke eons ago and not ridden since they were 3 or 4 years old. I chose the one whose build and personality I liked best. I didn't have the full asking price at the time, but I put $1000 down and worked off the remainder of the balance over several years. And that is how I became the owner of a papered warmblood horse. I trained her mostly on my own, with some intermittent riding lessons (as I could afford them/work them off) for help.
The Mare and I, about 8 years after I'd bought her.
Shortly after putting down The Pony due to Cushings and advanced age (32), I caught up again with my second horse, the 7/8 Arab. He'd been at a therapeutic riding center for over a decade and was in his early 20's. They were going through some financial difficulties that necessitated dispersing some of their herd. Being that he was now on the older end of their roster, I inquired if they might be willing to sell him to me. So, he came back into my ownership, for my daughters to ride, and has been known here as The Old Man until his death in 2018.
The Old Man
In 2007, I went into a 3-way ownership on an 8 year old registered Quarter Horse. He was supposed to be for my daughters to ride, the daughter of a fellow boarder to ride, and the farm owner to occasionally trail ride as her health allowed. I ended up buying out the other two owners over the years, and he shows up in several stories posted at this little place here until I sold him in 2017.
Almost immediately after the California Horse left Michigan for Oregon (where his owner's parents had bought a farm), I purchased Camaro, the second purebred Arabian I have owned and trained. The photo below is from our one and only show, in June 2021.
The Quarter Horse
My two year partnership with the California Horse followed, from summer 2017 until 2019. He is mentioned in many horse updates.
The California Horse,
all 18 hands of him!
In June of 2023, The Poetess became my next horse. Maybe my final horse, we'll see. Looking to train her as far as I can (based on how my body holds out and how she ages). DH would like to retire in about five years and hopes that he and I will be doing a whole lot more traveling after that. I'm not so sure I'll be 'done' with horses that quick. Maybe ten years from now. In 10 years I'll be almost 63. Not a whole lot of women that age still riding and doing barn chores on a regular basis. Fifty years of constant horses/horse chores might be enough. Time will tell.
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