Riding before walking

My mom's been cleaning out an old trunk full of pictures and albums, and she scanned this one in to send to me. She grew up with horses, and when I was born, had two. Kittle, an OTTB she was gifted after he bowed a tendon, and Cricket, an sweet old air-fern mare (Notice the sleek and muscular physique she's sporting along with her pint-sized passenger? LOL!)

Yep, that's me up there on top. My mom was bound and determined I'd be on a horse before I took my first steps. And I was. Probably the only time in my life I've been that close to doing the splits - Cricket was plenty broad, especially for my short legs.

One set of feet behind Cricket belong to Kittle, and the other, I think, are my dad's - you can just see the hand he's using to balance me. Cricket was absolutely long-suffering. She was always the one we could pile multiple children on top of - turn her loose, and she'd head for the nearest edible anything.