For the longest time, it was all about a horse. It didn’t matter which horse, it could be this horse or that horse, it really didn’t matter. My family didn’t understand. To them, I might as well have been speaking in a foreign language.
You’d think this is a stage that you could outgrow. Some people do, but this wasn’t the case for me. I was fortunate to begin riding when I was 12, owned my first horse at 14 and by 15, I was pretty serious. Without telling anyone, I arranged to take lessons at Hunterdon with George Morris. I was the only ‘backyard” kid in our lessons. The rest were showing at the Big “A” shows in their custom boots, riding their fancy horses. I wasn’t envious. He was very supportive and never made me feel like I didn’t belong. After my first lesson, I rode in a small but competitive local horse show and won champion in the Equitation division. I’ll never forget, after jumping a perfect round (I know it was good because it was the first time I heard applause), the girl that came in second (she had just qualified for Medal/McClay) yelled, “who is number 113?”. She was shocked to see it was me. As for Hunterdon, I lessoned every other week. It took me two-weeks of odd jobs to earn enough to pay for the lesson and shipping. It was a summer I will always remember fondly. [Read more…] about All about a horse