Happy 4th of July! We had a great one, I plan on posting about this tommorro, when I have the rest of the pictures together. So for now enjoy my Childhood memory post.
Memory #4
Horses
Horses
My best friend when I was little was Krista Thomas. She lived a couple houses down, we both had pastures in our back yards. My Family used our pasture very practically, and raised a couple calves each year for meat for our family. Krista’s family had horses. We would beg and beg our parents for a horse, but every time the response was, “horses are too expensive and we don’t have a barn.” Luckily we were able to ride Krista’s horses just about anytime we wanted, and many summers were spent daily on a horse’s back.
I wish I had some pictures of us riding horses but there are none to be found so I included some stock photos of horses that look a lot like the ones we used to ride. The one on the top looks like "Lady" and the one on the bottom looks a lot like "Patches". Now just try to imagine three little girls riding on the back with no saddle, cut off shorts, and barefeet and the pictures will be complete.
I really don’t remember how old we were when we first started riding horses, I do know we were probably not as old as we should have been. We started out by just going out and looking at the horses, feeding them grass and oats. Then we got a little braver, and would go out to the field and try to round up the horses so we could sit on their backs. Once we finally chased the horses into the corral, we would tie them to the fence, crawl up the fence, and onto the horses backs. We spent hours pretending to ride them, and dreaming about when we really could.
The next step was field riding. I’m not sure we were suppose to, because it seemed like Krista was always looking over her shoulder when we did it. We would corner the horses in the corral, put on their bridals, and ride the horses bareback around the pasture. Luckily, Krista owned about the most gentle horses around, they were short too, so the fall was never that far, (and we fell plenty of times). When we were young, Krista always rode a young and a little more spirited horse called Patches, and I rode a very old and gentle horse called Lady.
Finally at about the age of 8 or 9 we were given the okay to take them out on the road. We were quite the sight: cut off shorts, no shoes, and we almost always rode bareback. At first we were only allowed to ride Lady so the three of us: Krista, me, and my sister Nancy would all climb on one horse. Poor Nancy, she was the littlest and lowest in pecking order and always had to ride on the back. She had a very bumpy ride on the horse’s rear end, and would often just slide right off the back, occasionally taking me with her. Our most common destination was the town square that also had an arena in one corner of it. There we would gallop around and pretend we were rodeo queens. If we were lucky an old cowboy named Tom Shirtliff would show up on his horse, and then we were in for a real treat. His horse was the smartest horse we had ever seen. We loved to watch him perform tricks with his horse.
Eventually we were able to take two horses out. I would ride on one and Krista the other with Nancy riding behind on one or the other. Occasionally, we would get all fancy and put saddles on the horses. Those naughty horses would puff their stomachs out, so even when it seemed we had cinched the saddles down tight, after a block or two down the road the saddles would be falling off to one side or the other. On one very memorable occasion my horse got spooked and took off with me on it. My saddle started to slip to the side. I was so busy trying to stay on the horse, that I couldn’t do anything to get control of the horse. As we ran over a patch of grass, I decided my best option was to bail off the horse while I had a soft spot to land on. I bailed, and the horse kept running, now with the saddle practically all the way under it. I think we stuck to bare back riding for awhile after that.
Other memorable horse stories were: once we made homemade bridles for our horses. We thought we were so smart. We found some extra bits in the barn and fashioned the rest of the bridle out of twine used to bail hay. They seemed to work fine at first, we arrived at our destination, tied our horses up and started to play. Our knots must have been horrible because when we got back the only thing left of the horses were their bits and a tangle of twine. We were so scared that the horses had run off and we would never find them. We ran home to get help, and there were our horses patiently waiting to be let back into the gate of their pasture. Naughty horses!!!As you can imagine I didn’t play much with dolls or play dress up very often. Even when we weren’t riding horses our play was centered around horses. We had horse figurines we loved to play with, our Barbies were always riding horses, and more often than not we were horses. Needless to say I can do a really good horse whinny.
The next step was field riding. I’m not sure we were suppose to, because it seemed like Krista was always looking over her shoulder when we did it. We would corner the horses in the corral, put on their bridals, and ride the horses bareback around the pasture. Luckily, Krista owned about the most gentle horses around, they were short too, so the fall was never that far, (and we fell plenty of times). When we were young, Krista always rode a young and a little more spirited horse called Patches, and I rode a very old and gentle horse called Lady.
Finally at about the age of 8 or 9 we were given the okay to take them out on the road. We were quite the sight: cut off shorts, no shoes, and we almost always rode bareback. At first we were only allowed to ride Lady so the three of us: Krista, me, and my sister Nancy would all climb on one horse. Poor Nancy, she was the littlest and lowest in pecking order and always had to ride on the back. She had a very bumpy ride on the horse’s rear end, and would often just slide right off the back, occasionally taking me with her. Our most common destination was the town square that also had an arena in one corner of it. There we would gallop around and pretend we were rodeo queens. If we were lucky an old cowboy named Tom Shirtliff would show up on his horse, and then we were in for a real treat. His horse was the smartest horse we had ever seen. We loved to watch him perform tricks with his horse.
Eventually we were able to take two horses out. I would ride on one and Krista the other with Nancy riding behind on one or the other. Occasionally, we would get all fancy and put saddles on the horses. Those naughty horses would puff their stomachs out, so even when it seemed we had cinched the saddles down tight, after a block or two down the road the saddles would be falling off to one side or the other. On one very memorable occasion my horse got spooked and took off with me on it. My saddle started to slip to the side. I was so busy trying to stay on the horse, that I couldn’t do anything to get control of the horse. As we ran over a patch of grass, I decided my best option was to bail off the horse while I had a soft spot to land on. I bailed, and the horse kept running, now with the saddle practically all the way under it. I think we stuck to bare back riding for awhile after that.
Other memorable horse stories were: once we made homemade bridles for our horses. We thought we were so smart. We found some extra bits in the barn and fashioned the rest of the bridle out of twine used to bail hay. They seemed to work fine at first, we arrived at our destination, tied our horses up and started to play. Our knots must have been horrible because when we got back the only thing left of the horses were their bits and a tangle of twine. We were so scared that the horses had run off and we would never find them. We ran home to get help, and there were our horses patiently waiting to be let back into the gate of their pasture. Naughty horses!!!As you can imagine I didn’t play much with dolls or play dress up very often. Even when we weren’t riding horses our play was centered around horses. We had horse figurines we loved to play with, our Barbies were always riding horses, and more often than not we were horses. Needless to say I can do a really good horse whinny.
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