A story for your blog:

http://goldentheponygirl.blogspot.com/

I have been riding since I was eight and quickly got a reputation for my Velcro seat and, (like many of us as children) my fearlessness.

The barn I rode at was a Thoroughbred breeding barn. The owner/trainer bred her mares and trained the stock as race horses. The ones that did not make it to the track were sold on or kept as lesson horses.

She used her more advanced students as the colt starters, trainers, and exercise riders. I am pretty sure anyone now-a-days would have a fit with what she let us do, but I learned a lot in my early days.

It was a very run down barn- held together with barb wire and hay string. Lessons were always group and 10 dollars a day.

She was not a very good teacher; she taught large lessons of ten or more children with all of us circling around her lawn chair. Our lessons were the same everyday; walk trot canter-change of direction-walk trot canter. She would yell a few canned responses at us as we trotted around-heals down! arch your back! and of course my favorite; Don't fall off. Sometimes she fell asleep.

I often infuriated her with my enthusiasm and my constant questions that she would refuse to answer. When I was good enough I would breeze the horses in training for her before my lesson.

I did not learn much about correct equitation, horsemanship, technique or training, but I did get to ride a bunch of crazy thoroughbreds. She had about 50 horses at a time and they were all the colors of the rainbow of green, sour, buckers, rearers, even a horse who liked to sit down! Her horses were also amazing horses that had talent and vices in equal shares and some just had hearts of pure gold.

As a teenager I rode anything. My favorite mount Velour was deemed an unpredictable runaway and was hardly ever used at the time. Velour was a 16.1 flea bitten gray Thoroughbred who could jump the moon and also run away with you like 'Pepé Le Pew '. He was the first horse I ever saw dump someone-it was at my 2nd lesson ever. Anytime he was frightened he would take off at a dead run with his head up in the air like a giant goofy Arabian. He was very dangerous.

When I moved up to the status of "pick out your own darn mount" I always picked him. I had the winning combination of traits to ride him. I could stay on, I was not afraid, and I was sensitive enough to know when he was going to bolt.

He was also perfect for me. He was sensitive, and responded to reassurance and encouragement. He only needed support and kindness. Under this regime he blossomed. I never did take a fall off of him (as long as you don't count a horrendous crash we had on a cross country course one time, he fell first!).

When ever I went on vacation I would come home to stories of the other children who had tried to ride him. In addition to bolting he would also buck but only on two conditions: If you hit his mouth over a fence, or if you hit him with a crop.

He had a real elephant memory in general, I never knew a horse that could hold a grudge like he could. He kicked a girl in the face for seemingly no reason. She had spit coke in his face though and I always suspected that he had been biding his time for a good opportunity to get her back.

More likely she had scared him of course. He was a real spook.

Velour was my first love. We did everything together- hunter shows, jumper shows, trail riding, fox hunting, cross country, and hunter paces. For a horse that was so spooky he made an excellent cross country horse. He never refused a jump! He would spin and bounce and jig and snort waiting for his turn to enter the time box.

People around us would be calling up to me "So you want us to hold him? Are you ok? What is he doing!!??" I would answer he just wants-to-go. As soon as we entered the box he stood stone still and would launch into a forward but controlled canter at the cue. Ears pointed forward bounding as eager as a hound.We won everything we got our little grubby under-bred hands on.

At the age of 15 I left. I was offered some rides and some money at a new barn. A barn with cross ties and clean stalls and fancy ponies so I moved on. I asked the owner if I could buy Velor. He was the same age as me so no longer a spring chicken. She gave me a price that I would never be able to save up for.

4 years later she gives me a call and offers me Velour for 800 dollars so of course I come running. We are both 19 and had both seen better days. He had grown melanomas and was on the ground with colic when I came to get him. The woman's reason for selling him was that he was old as dirt and still would not stop throwing people.

I got him home and retired him. We would go on walks together in the woods with just a halter. He still had the best canter though no jumping anymore! I am so happy to have gotten to pay him back for all of those wonderful rides.

Thinking back on it he truly was a "problem" horse. I know I would label him one now. Despite all of his troubles and misgiving with people though he still gave me a chance. I think I can fairly say that I never let him down, nor did he ever let me down. He always looked out for me when my parents were too busy and my trainer was neglectful. He saved my butt on many a trail ride that got out of hand and many a crowded charged hunt field.

I know I saved him from making many stupid decisions as well :)

He passed away Last February. He was diagnosed with Cushings and immediately went on medication. He just got worse so I found a ride for him to the local equine hospital. Ultrasounds showed congestive heart failure and tumors all over his body internally. When I got the bill from them they took off all of the in house fees. The vet wrote me a card that read something like "We were really touched by a girl and her pony we do not get to many of your type in here." The hospital is in Ocala.

He got off the trailer that day running and bucking. He passed away 2 weeks later and I buried him under his favorite tree. He got to have 5 years with me though and I would not trade them for the world. My happy childhood is all thanks to him without it I would have been another lonely girl. I count myself as lucky to get own the horse of my dreams even if it was only in the twilight of his life. Thinking back on it though he was always mine.