I'm one of those girls that wanted a horse all my life.  I pleaded and begged my parents who just could not afford one (I am the youngest of 5 kids).  When I was in grade school, I made all kinds of elaborate plans of how I, personally, could afford to own and care for a horse but, of course, the plans my plans never yielded a horse, not even lessons!

I read every book I could find on horses and I rode every chance I got at state parks.  I believed that you kicked once for a walk, twice for a trot, and three times for a canter.  At the State Fair I always made sure to check out all the horses.  Any time there was ever a horse anywhere, I spotted it and I always kept the dream alive that, one day, I would own my own horse.  I had horseshoes, Breyer horses, pictures of horses, and cowboy boots.

I put it on my list of goals; "One day I will own my own horse."

It happened when I was 36 years old.  I had never saddled a horse in my life when I brought my 5 year old Quarter Horse gelding "Buddy" home.  My husband and I truly mean it when we say that our horses survived their first year with us as new owners!   Truly we were city dwellers turned country.  My husband's grandfather had ponies, but that was a long time ago.

The first winter was telling; it was trudging out to the dark barn in the frigid air and dealing with frozen water and no relief from the day in and day out routine of caring for our horses.  We knew that if we got through the winter and still loved them, that we were hooked.  We were hooked.  We would spend an evening sitting out in the barn with a beer or a glass of wine just LOOKING at them after all the chores were done.  Watching them eat, learning their smells, listening to their noises, marveling at their beauty.

I learned pretty quickly that there was more to this horse stuff than kick once for walk, kick twice for canter -- blah blah.  I became very aware that I was on the back of an animal that weighed a thousand pounds and that I needed to know how to communicate with him or things just didn't turn out how I'd envisioned all those years of picturing myself galloping across the meadow with hair streaming behind me.  The first I took him trail riding he lost site of his buddy horse and simply turned around on the trail.  That experience made me afraid of him and riding.  I wanted to sell him!

And so we took lessons once a week.  I had to force myself to ride my horse and I was scared the whole time.  My horse knew I was afraid of course, I quit trying to "trick" him (like I could anyway!) and just loved him all the more because he was good to me always and never took advantage of me being afraid.  When you get to know my horse, you will realize how much of a sissy baby I was because he's the most gentle and unbelievably calm horse I've ever been around.  Through all of this I began to learn how to ride.

We did a dab of showing (not very seriously, mostly adult fun shows) and we became enamored of trail riding.  It's my favorite thing to do.  I missed the structure of lessons and showing, so we joined a saddle club.  That's when I was introduced to clinics and found that I really love those.  It's another of my favorite activities related to horses.  It incorporates all kinds of learning, and I especially enjoy talking to other horse folks especially ones who are more experienced than I am and I can learn from them.  The saddle club ended up with too many meetings and they had many folks who had children that rode so there were a lot of activities for 4-H that we didn't participate in.

Meanwhile, my husband began to devote much of his time and attention to Thoroughbred and racing in particular.  He plans on having a couple of Thoroughbred mares and breed them to sell the babies.  He's been attending breeding clinics and anything and everything to do with mare care.

So, when we are planning our trips, it's usually 3 nights and 4 days at Midwest Trail Ride and then we'll hit opening day at Keeneland and stay in Lexington for 2 days!  It's all good!  It's all about horses!

We finally got a trailer last year that we could sleep in.  When Lewis Dotson came out a few weeks ago to talk about finishing insulating our trailer (it was used as a show trailer) and putting a couple of reading lights in the gooseneck, he asked me if I had ever heard of Red Hats and Purple Chaps.  I was like, "what?"  When he left and I visited the website, I was astounded!  How could me and Buddy have been living our lives without this group?  I perused the website and immediately contacted Jane Howard.  The clinics, the trailriding, the parades, the fellowship of women, I couldn't sign up fast enough.

And now, I can't wait to meet all of you and hear your stories and share some horse time with you all.