I've had several lives, and each one has been laced with horses.
As a little girl, I galloped, whinnied, plunged, and raced. I rode the dog. I rode a log with an ancient saddle on it. My mother took me to a "dude ranch" for an hours' ride even when money was very scarce. When I had missing teeth, I could tack myself up with a pencil bit and a string bridle and ride myself. I ate dry oatmeal for my oats and shredded wheat for my hay.
When I was a teenager, my father came back into my life, and he bonded with me by getting us a horse to share. "Sweetheart" was a buckskin Quarterhorse mare, bought at Enumclaw auction for $150. She was a fine horse who could do it all. I sold her to pay for my (first) wedding. (Awww…)
As a young woman, I had a couple of Appaloosas, shared a couple of Arabs, trained up a new Quarterhorse filly, and shared a sweet-and-sour Shetland pony with my young children. All taught me lessons and left indelible hoofprints on my heart. All were re-homed in the course of the divorce.
Now in my idyllic grown-up life I have not only the most wonderful husband in the world, but the finest horses going - minis. We have enough land, enough barn, and more than enough enthusiasm for our little powerhouses - two miniature horses and a mini donkey. Missy the donkey is a stinker and a smarty pants. She's our alarm clock and our intruder alert. She keeps everybody honest. Katie our silver mini is pretty, sweet and gentle, easygoing and rather lazy. She has excelled in breed shows and local shows. She is our granddaughter Morgan's darling. Velvet is our trauma-recovered, edgy, energy-fied, driven driving horse, the dynamo and the diva.
We discovered combined driving thanks to Ron and Dorothy Whiteman and then Maureen Harkcom in 2002, and we've never looked back. It is elegance, freedom, sharp efforts, thrills, disappointments and joys. It is forever-learning and never-quitting. It is friends and inspirations and open spaces and open hearts. With my husband Peter's support, Velvet and I have moved along in competition, my wits notwithstanding.
We've involved ourselves in the American Driving Society and become passionate about preserving and promoting the sport and art of carriage driving with all the goodness it brings to horses and people and our lands. I've met some of the finest people I could ever hope to meet. (Awe…)
WOW! With Wanda Lusk and Ron Whiteman I share a vision that is Way Out West. We want to do good deeds to promote carriage driving and the life and times that go with it. We're willing to work to earn our privileges to play. Heck, we'll work even with no prospect of any return of the favor. With good people like our fellow WOWs, work and play are equal joys.
And in my next life? I'll always gallop and plunge and race. And probably whinny, too.
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