Memory Mondays – Week 5

 

Doing that post with the pictures of the horses a few days ago made me want to do a memory mondays post on when I started riding. I had received riding lessons as part of my ninth birthday! I had wanted that with all my heart, so I was very excited! I remember my Mom also gave me her boots from when she was a little girl. I was so proud to wear those to my first riding lesson! I had loved horses since before I could talk, and it was a dream come true for me to get to actually go to a stable and experience the rich, warm, sweet smells of a horse barn.

My first lesson was on a beautiful and sweet horse named Zipper. He was so careful with his riders and was very versatile.

It was only slightly intimidating at first when Shirley, my trainer, wanted me to go faster than a walk. But after that initial reservation, I never looked back! I just wanted to go, go, go. It wasn’t long before I was having my first jumping lesson, this time on Cody.

Then it was on to showing…

I loved riding so much…it was pretty much all I dreamed about and thought about. My trainer, Shirley, had told my Mom that she thought I should continue with my lessons after I had gone through all the ones that were paid for. We couldn’t afford it, but Shirley said I had a natural seat and she’d been looking for a rider like me to train, and that she would let me continue with the lessons if I cleaned saddles every now and then. That was such a great deal! I can never get over how generous that was! My sister Becky took lessons, too, and Shirley gave them to us for free. Whenever my parents could, they paid Shirley, and years later when Becky and I were competing in horse shows where some of the winnings were in money, we’d give that to Shirley and her husband Ted, too.

In the future, I’ll be having other Memory Mondays posts and pictures about more of my riding days. The picture above is from when I was maybe 11 or 12; It was my first time taking Jaws over the coop, it is kind of a gauge to see how well you have your timing down, and your communication with your horse – because Jaws was blind, poor dear. Well, I shouldn’t call him ‘poor’…he was named “Jaws” for a very very good reason, LOL!