Horse Crazy

Lindsay and Lulu at WWRC. 

For anyone who doesn’t know what is behind Lindsay’s love for horses, you are not alone.  I’m not even quite sure when or how this occurred and I’ve been with her every day of her young life.  I did not buy her “My Little Pony” sets to play with, though they did make it into her collection eventually.  I didn’t read lots of books to her about horses.  While I like all animals I certainly did not encourage her in this direction initially or specifically.  In fact, there wasn’t even time.  One of the first things she ever said to me before the age of 18 months besides “May I have more juice please” (yes, she spoke that clearly from a very early age and this statement from a “baby” about knocked the socks off of a friend of mine) was “Mom, I love horses”.  In fact, that’s why she herself loves running fast and carrots are her favorite food to eat; because that is just what the horses like.  Honestly I think she was born with a  love for this magnificent creature.  For her second birthday I bought her a set of tiny Mares and Foals.  They came in a bucket that had a tiny stable for a lid along with a tiny hairbrush, feeding buckets, and water pump.  She loved this set immediately, carrying those little horses in her small fists 24 hours a day.  I always found one particular one curled up in a loose grip when I would check on her in her crib at night.  (She still has this set, tucked away now).  She went on her first pony ride for her second birthday when she was FINALLY old enough.  It felt like she’d waited an eternity for this experience.  That summer when she was two we spent many late mornings picnic-ing on a blanket just outside of the horses pasture at a nearby farm and Lindsay would watch the horses for hours.  She was fascinated with everything about them.  At home she would saddle up her imaginary horse by placing a washcloth or one of the quilt blocks I was done sewing on the arm of the couch to go for a ride.  I got her a stick horse after that and she rode it constantly on her excursions, even caring for it with feeding and grooming.  When she was four she was invited to a birthday party at the farm which she was seriously looking forward to with more anticipation than normal.  I found her cleaning up the backyard that afternoon when she informed me that she might not need a ride home from the party that evening.  I asked her how she was going to come home and she told me that they might be giving her a horse for a prize at the birthday party since it was at the farm so she was just going to ride him home and she hoped it was a white one but any horse would be just fine.  She was in fact cleaning out a place for him in our backyard “just in case”.  I spoke to her about the probability of that happening.  She said “I know but … just in case”.  In Kindergarten she had a little project about what she wanted to be when she grew up.  She wrote that she wanted to take care of horses.  When her teacher questioned her about where she would be able to work or how she thought she might have a job like that someday she said “I’m going to work at Parky’s Farm, Silly!”  As if there was any question!!!  Her Kindergarten teacher, a couple years later, went to a real rodeo in Texas and thinking of Lindsay brought her a large stuffed horse with the name of the rodeo embroidered on the animal.  Her teacher, it turned out, loved horses too.  Another teacher that Lindsay never had offered up her daughter’s outgrown riding helmet to Lindsay.  She read all kinds of books, non-fiction AND fiction, about horses and could spout off all kinds of facts with her knowledge base.  She filled her bed with stuffed animal horses, one time counting them to beyond 45.  There are many more now and as she grows I’m not sure there is much room left for her!  But they’re still there.    Eventually Lindsay said she “needed” to learn how to ride a horse.  After all, “how will I get a job with horses if I don’t have any experience with them?”  One problem was that she was too short.  All the time she measured herself and when she was tall enough stated that she didn’t want birthday presents wrapped in paper that year.  She wanted to ride a horse.  If that was the only thing that happened for her birthday that was what she wanted.  So we found a reasonable price on horse camp; about what we would normally spend for her entire birthday… the most hours for the least amount of money and presented her with an envelope as her only birthday present on the day she turned 10.  I figured that actual experience with the horses would drive Lindsay one of two ways.  After mucking the stalls she might decide horses weren’t really for her… or she might just love this animal even more.  It didn’t take Lindsay long to decide that she never wanted another wrapped birthday present again.  Living in a small home, Lindsay doesn’t have a great deal of space for personal items.  She doesn’t need a lot of clothes since she has hand-me-downs along with generous grandparents.  So an “experience” seems like a good thing for us as parents to put her birthday money into for Lindsay.  And it’s easy to shop for, too.  One visit on the internet to sign up and we’re done!  Plus when we see how much she loves being with the horses we know this was the right gift for her, without a doubt.  I love that she enjoys something so good, natural, athletic and wholesome.

I will post pics of Lindsay’s horse show, soon.