An ode to a former life

I've ridden horses for essentially as long as I can remember. I started out with my grandparents' Shetland ponies, then my brother's pony Pokey, then riding lessons at Open Heart Meadow Ranch, onward to my first pony Fudge, to Romeo, to Duke, to Mariah, and to Quincey. I can think of at least a dozen horses I am leaving out but previously said horses are the important ones.

I got Fudge for my sixth or seventh birthday (I can’t honestly remember). He got into town during one of my brother's hockey banquets and after it was done my dad and I hurried to the barn to see him. Sally put him on a lunge line and we jumped him up to 4 ft that night (that's big for a pony his size!). She told me he had been ridden twice in a western saddle and we would have to learn everything together--and that we did. I remember riding Fudge literally for hours. Amy Bowhan and I would ride around either in the arena or trail riding in the pasture across the street. After that we would have grooming contests for a while longer and beg anyone we could to "judge" them. Usually we roped poor Anne Glen into it and she would always rule it a tie. Then we would finish the day off by grazing on our ponies bareback on the front lawn. This continued for a couple years, then Kendall Marvin showed up at the barn and bought a pony named K.C. This girl was weird--she wore sweats everyday! One day Amy and I invited her to sit bareback on K.C. with us and graze. Kendall went to ask her dad if it was okay--a weirdo right? :) It wasn't until a show at Jackson Hole, Wyoming that I decided Kendall wasn't a weirdo and she became my best friend for several years. I sold Fudge when I was nine if memory serves. It was at a show in Boise at the fairgrounds (my favorite place to show, not because of the facility, but mostly because of the memories). I sold him to a little girl; I loaded him up in their trailer and didn't cry until it pulled away, I remember being proud of myself for keeping it together.

My next pony was named Romeo. Romeo was quite the bratty pony. He had a fancy gate and jumped well but was pretty unbroke. We had three options in the show ring--I either won, fell off, or he stopped at a fence. After about a year of riding him, I learned his tricks pretty well. Kendall and I moved up to the "big guns." Sally would jump us up to, what I want to say is 3'3" or 3'6" but in reality it was probably only 2'9" or 3'. But either way it was pretty big for us at the time. That fall I fell of Romeo and tore my ACL. The following summer Romeo was chewing on his martingale and got it stuck on his tooth. He then scared himself and reared over backwards a few times and landed on me. After those two incidents my dad decided it was time for a new horse, which led me to Duke.

Duke was fantastic. He was an old buckskin quarter horse. He was fun and taught me a lot. I had always liked equitation but during my time riding him I decided it was for me. I can't seem to remember any stories about Duke, just great memories. I remember that during this time Natalie Rae moved in with Sally, my dad, and I. Which at the time I hated, but now I am so glad it happened. Duke was indeed fantastic but I outgrew him, which led me to Mariah.

Sally had this great plan of buying this mare Mariah to train and fix up. She was going to be my fancy 3' Children's horse for the A circuit. But she, at the time, was anything but A circuit material in my opinion. I was genuinely mad Sally bought me this crabby mare when I wanted a fancy already fabulous mare. But boy did I end up with one. I first rode her on a Sunday morning in a lesson with Sophie Edwards, a girl I knew nothing about except that she was always early, super neat, clean, and always had her hair in a tight pony tail--little did I know she'd end up being my best friend. It took a while for Mariah and me to smooth stuff out but once we did it was great. Kendall had a horse named Seth, another remarkable Children’s horse. Kendall and I got extremely competitive with each other in the show ring. Most of my favorite memories of Kendall involve us saying sassy things each other. Well that, and of course our ridiculously superstitious habits. Mariah and I tried to move up to the Junior Hunters. We held our own for two shows, but then Sally and I decided it wasn’t fair for Mariah to try that hard and that I was too tall for her. I sold her to Teresa Mansfield and this brought me to Quincey.

Quincey is a big goofy warmblood. I love this horse. He will eat nearly anything. I’ll pick out the good runts, banana and strawberry of course, and he’ll eat the gross ones, lime and grape (yuck!). He’s partial to diet coke and Poweraid and has been known to take a bite or two out of a turkey Subway sandwich. Most people at Parkwood know him as this big, broke, saint of a horse that will drag you around the course. But this is far from how he used to be. Ciara Chivers Reschke, Mallory Eddinburough, and I know. It took a lot of hard work to get him how he is today, but, for the most part, it was really fun. Q is by far one of the most fun horses to do Eq. on. He has such a great canter, shape, and a big, round, fun jump. He has animated lead changes and chews on your rains. Quincey was supposed to be my 3’6” medal horse. We held our own quite well, qualifying for the Charles Owen Medal finals twice, but Sally said he wasn’t fancy enough to go.

These past few months I’ve been nostalgic for riding. Most of the time I feel like I chose my education over riding, and in a lot of ways I did. But then again in a lot of ways I didn’t. When I was little I always wanted to make it to the Maclay finals. I had a lot of hopes and ambitions. But both Sally Parks and Sally Collins kept my reality in check and let me know that I didn’t have the resources, skills, or talent to do so. For a good portion of my life I resented them telling me that on numerous occasions. But now I am realizing they were right, obviously--I never made it into the Maclay finals. Maybe I never had the option of choosing riding over education. Maybe I never had a future in riding at all and maybe I still don’t, but I’d like to. My new dream is to ride in the AO’s and my biggest dream of all--to ride in the 4’ hunters. But the more logically I think about it, the more I realize I’m going to be the A.A. that forgets her course and leans in and chips to every downhill oxer. I suppose the latter is fine--because I’ll still get to ride. But the prior is what I really want.