I have been asked this question all my life! I really don’t have an answer. Or, the answer would take so long it would fill a book.
My teenage years found us moving to a suburban area, where my exposure to horses was even more limited. Still lots of reading and learning about my favorite topic, but actual time with horses was quite limited. Still, I remember a happy time, with lots of family and friends. And pet dogs and cats were a big part of my world. My family took up camping, and I loved the adventures into the woods. My father built me a plywood sailboat as incentive to learn to swim. I was also active in Girl Scouts, and that activity, quite unexpectedly, threw me back into the actual horse world.
I was in high school and was in a senior Girl Scout Troop. Several of us were recruited to be assistant leaders for younger scout troops. It was still no secret that I loved horses, and the younger girls wanted to earn some equestrian badges. I located a stable in the city that would allow us to come out and learn about the horses to fulfill the badge requirements.
My first paying horse job
This led to a part-time job, then a full-time job when I graduated from high school. I was in heaven on earth! I would take a bus to the barn, and join my new tribe feeding, watering, brushing and caring for about 90 horses. Most were privately owned and boarded at the barn. About 35 or 40 of the horses were “hacks”. This meant they were available to the paying public for a half-hour or an hour trail ride through the adjoining city park.
Of course, you can imagine that we dealt with people of all sorts. Families, urban cowboys, other horse loving folks that lived on the fringe of the horse world. Each ride would be accompanied by one or more barn employees. Sometimes we would have 25 or so horses in a group. I loved every moment! I especially loved riding a tall, rangy paint gelding named Charlie Brown as my lead horse. He was full of spunk and riding him always felt like an adrenalin rush. He never walked but pranced and danced the whole ride.
Since the college I selected had a full freshman class, I had to wait until the midterm freshman class started the next February. This allowed me to keep my barn job through that winter. I was paid all of $25 per week and spent part of that on bus fare! It’s a good thing college tuition cost less back then!
Still no horse of my own! But lots of riding, lots of learning and lots of exhausting fun!
Retraining a “ruined” horse
I started dating a young man who boarded his horse at the barn. Through youthful enthusiasm and peer pressure, he started barrel racing his horse. The horse had neither the athletic ability nor the mental fortitude for the activity. After a while the horse was “ruined”. He became a panic driven soul that the boys had to mount on the run, and only their youthful balance let them stay on. Eventually the horse was banned from barrel racing shows when he caused a serious wreck. Frightened by an indoor arena, he reared and fell on his rider, almost destroying the timing equipment.
Shortly after that, my beau was drafted into the army, in the midst of the Vietnam war. He couldn’t sell the horse due to its reputation and condition. Then, as now, there are too many good horses out there for people to want to mess with a bad one.
This horse became my first full training/retraining project. It was also my introduction into just how resilient these animals can be. For months I slowly reintroduced him to being a calm and steady trail horse. With hours of help from my seasoned employers, we returned this horse to his original solid self. I even rode him in a Western Pleasure class at a horse show in the same indoor arena that frightened him the summer before.
Of course, his young owner was still out of the area, and his father was easily able to sell the horse. I was heartbroken, but I had to realize he had never really been mine. I still had my job at the barn with all those horses. That job lasted until I went to college, and then continued during school breaks and my first summer break.
Do you share my passion for equines? Tell me your teenage experiences with horses in a comment below. I’d love to hear it! Thanks for stopping by!
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