Many of us can't remember at what age we actually became horse crazy but for myself I know my parents felt a little riding camp at 9 years old would get that bug out of my system.
Summer of 1989 off I went to YMCA riding camp along with my two sister (because my parents never played favorites). Did it work? My sisters may have only rode a handful of times after that but for me I was gone hook line and sinker! My grandfather shared the same crazy passionate love for horses with me and always promised, well before riding camp sealed it. That I would have a horse someday. I have the most amazing two parents in the world that gave me the best childhood ever! Today I still don't understand how I managed it but my parents caved to my pleading for a horse, we sat down with my grandparents and as my dad has always said, "It's not when will it happen? How are we going to make this happen?" next dream in my life came true at 10 years old I proudly called Jericho (un-broke Hackney horse 1.5yrs old) my first horse. The horse to accompany Jericho was Jerry (green broke chestnut quarter horse 2 year old). My love for those two horses blurred the fact that they were not yet rideable. That never stopped us. They were trailered to my grandfather’s 200 acre farm in Mildmay. Where they had their own luxury bank barn run-in. This is where training began. This was the introduction to the rest of my life. My grandfather had chores to do so we tied up Jericho strapped a saddle to him and he tossed me up . . . my introduction to breaking . . . well basically we did things all wrong! I spent the rest of my life teaching myself through books how to solve problems that I created as the rider. My colts that grew into stallions gave me 2 things in my foundation of life one how to approach and deal with stallion behaviours (since my parents didn’t know they should get gelded) and two how there are no problem horses only problem riders. I taught my horses their bad behaviours and it's a lot easier to teach a horse right the first time around instead of dealing with issues the rest of their life. Horses want leaders the difficult horses are leaders because they have to think one step beyond the herd in order to keep their herd safe, lead them to food, water, and shelter. Never forget they are the special ones. Treasure each lesson as if it will last the rest of your horse’s life because . . . it will. This is my first blog. I'm still learning but now that I'm retired from breaking horses and will stick to the safety of sewing horse blankets. I feel this inner need to share my life in hopes that it might help others to follow their dreams, plan a little smarter them myself and do what's best for the horse that is following them.
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