True love started early

As I puttered around bareback in the field last night too hot to bother with a saddle, it struck me how much I enjoy just being out with the horses. It's a long-term relationship that started before I could walk, I guess.

It was my mother who first plopped me on her mare. Before I could walk, even - tiny legs sticking out to almost, but not quite reach the edges of Cricket's broad back. I don't remember it, but I've always wondered if that's why I associate the smell of horses with comforting things.

A couple years later came lead-line at the local 4-H show.

On Trigger, circa 1976

I still have this saddle, and fond memories of the P- sisters and their mom who generously supplied mounts for a bunch of leadliners every year. They also had cows - Limosin cattle to be exact - and always hauled a bunch of them to the county fair. For those of us kids who practically lived in the barn, it was an opportunity to a) groom a cow, b) show a cow, and c) learn the other use for Aquanet! Cows need big hair, too - who knew!

On Fat Sally, 1977

I mentioned before how my mom selected Shandar - here he is a couple years after he came to live with us, with a haircut ala Moe of the Three Stooges. Yikes!

Shandar, 1980

Little sister circles in the round pen - 1984

My sister, who was to have inherited Shan when I outgrew him, still loves horses, but never felt the strong pull to continue horsing around.

With Mingo - 1985

By the 1980's I'd graduated to bigger horses. Mingo, who belonged to friends, was in hindsight a great kids' horse, and also incredibly fugly. Long, fat body, common head, short legs -- he was hard to catch, and so round he was easy to slide off of accidentally. He also had the most amazing shying technique: at the drop of a hat he could disappear out from under you, coming back upright a good 4' from where he started and you left off. Staying on him definitely developed my seat and legs - we seldom used saddles, preferring to scramble on bareback and roam the countryside that way.

For a long time after college I made do with other people's horses. But in 2004 I bought FlamingStars Sundance (a.k.a. Sunny) as a long-yearling.

Badlands Wagon Train, 2004

One of our first major outings - a 3-day ride through the South Dakota Badlands and surroundings area. Sunny was a trouper to pony, handling water, wagons, and careening ponies with aplomb. A wonderful omen for things to come! I borrowed Sheba for the trip. She's a well-seasoned campaigner, and an excellent monkey-see, monkey-do example-provider for young stock. Of course, she dumped me on the last day.... But luckily the only thing bruised was my dignity!

2005 Corn Palace Stampede Rodeo Drill Team

Yep, that's me on the left. In a moment of insanity I agreed to ride in the local drill team, a long-running staple of the Corn Palace Stampede Rodeo. I rode for two years, but once Sunny was old enough he proved to heartily dislike the crowding necessary for close-order exercises and I hated to borrow a horse and give up precious riding time on him, so I joined the "former drill team rider" ranks. (Good excuses, since the speed and crowds made me nervous - I don't look nearly as terrified as I felt!)

I guess I simply started horse crazy, and I never outgrew it. I'd love to share my affliction with my family. When I married my husband I also gained two children (and two cats). He made space in his home for my books and saddles, etc. and he's since acquired a horse - as many do when "saddled" with us horse-mad gals.

H & M are super kids. They're both bright, interesting, active young people, and we get along, which is wonderful. Although T grew up in rural Kansas around horses, cows, and farm equipment, the kids didn't. Initially the farm was a challenge for them - there's poop! It smells! But gradually, it has became less so.

M had a good time in leadline last year (Sunny was a doll), but he's not as captivated this year. Soccer and bowling are his new passions. H is newly a teenager. She's appropriated her dad's camera, and is getting to be quite the photographer. She caught a gorgeous shot of Sunny elevating through the pasture, tail flagged & nostrils flaring - it's hanging on my office wall.

Neither of them has really developed an interest in the horses. They both have other inclinations, and that's okay. Maybe in time they'll come around, but if they don't, that's fine, too - they just don't know what they're missing.

How about you: did you sob over Black Beauty, envy Alec the Black, and thrill to the story of Old Bones, the Wonder Horse? Were your favorite toys Breyer ponies, did you love Barbie's horses more than her outfits, and was the best place to whisper secrets a grassy, horsey smelling mane? Or did you come to the stable later in life?