A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses Part 2

Part 1

First I want to plug the next Horse Lovers' Blog Carnival. It will be hosted right here on Feb 21. The theme is All Things Equine which means all things, not just horses but, donkeys, burro, zebras, you name it, if it's an equine you can add your blog post. You can submit an entry Here Entries must be submitted by Feb 20, 2007 by 5:00 pm PST.

Working at the show barn, I had met the Arabian mare of my dreams. Even though she had stolen my heart long before I had planned of even looking for that special horse for me, I was not in a position to buy her. I didn't even know if she was for sale, and I dared not ask, lest my dreams be crushed when they'd only just begun.

I worked six days a week and many times twelve hour days in the show barn. I came home exhausted both physically and mentally. My feet and legs screamed at me from walking on the asphalt all day and my brain was numb from information overload. I'd collapse in my favorite rocking chair and rock myself to sleep. I didn't even share with my family the special Arabian horse I had found. I kept her secret locked safely away in my mind protecting my dream from the collapse a part of me was so sure would happen.

The days and weeks went by and I had managed to learn all of the Arabian horses names and what stall they lived in. I had learned how to lunge a few months previously at an open barn demonstration I had participated in. The demo horse, a young Arabian stallion, had been a willing candidate for a beginner. The horses in the show barn were not so inclined. Conditioning on the end of a lunge line was not their idea of sport. Toying with my head, NOW that was sport! Since I was the new "girl," (twice the age of everyone else there) of course, the regular grooms left the worst to me. I was determined and it didn't take long before I was proficient at lungeing and sweating even the laziest horse on the list. I enjoyed the challenge, seeing it as another step closer to my dream.

Within a couple of months I was a pretty good groom. I asked so many questions, I'll bet they wanted to shoot me on occasion but I was a quick study. I soaked up information like a sponge once I got over my initial overload. By now I was tacking up horses for the trainers, learning why they used which bits, draw reins, curbs, you name it, I was on a quest for knowledge and determined not to miss a thing.

with all the time I spent working (for free, I might add) I found at least a few minutes each day to spend with Scandalous. If I didn't get to turn her out or work her, I would go to her stall before I left for the day. Always armed with carrots and brushes to groom her. I was still not daring to speak out loud about her but the two of us were forming a special bond. I had figured out that there was a sales list in the office and Scandalous was on it. Just knowing she was for sale somehow made me one step closer to attaining my dream.

Finally I got up the nerve to ask the trainer about her. The trainer actually owned the mare. I was told that while she was for sale they wanted a lot of money for her. The trainer seemed surprised when I told her I had expected that to be the case. I still wanted to know her price. Thankfully for me, it was not as much as I had expected. While it was more than I had paid for my first house, it was a number that was within my reach with some time. Especially when the trainer added that she would consider terms to the right home, I knew I had crossed another hurdle. I needed time to figure things out but I wanted that mare. I was assured that if anyone came forward to buy her, I would be given the first right of refusal.

Then one day the trainers told the grooms we had a visitor coming to look at horses tomorrow. There was a list of individuals that were of particular interest and those horses were bathed and clipped. Scandalous was not on the list. But the next after the other horses were shown to the visitor, Scandalous was pulled from her stall and turned loose in a paddock for the woman to see.

I was devastated. I ran off to an empty stall in the back of the barn and cried hysterically. An assistant trainer found me there and consoled me. I can remember him telling me not to worry, that Shannon would never sell Scandalous out from underneath me. She had promised me she wouldn't and I could count on that. I stopped crying and came out but my heart was heavy.

I told my husband, Dave, that evening about what had happened and how I had cried. Knowing me, Dave knew immediately how important this mare was to me. I'm not a crier. It was forbidden in my house growing up and I'd learned at any early age to not shed a tear. I didn't even cry at my father's funeral when I was twelve. In therapy I had learned to cry behind closed doors in the safety of supportive people who expected to see people cry. But to cry in public - never, not then, not now! My programming is rock solid. To cry over this mare in a public place spoke volumes. Dave assured me we would figure out a way for Scandalous to be mine.

To be continued...


Part 3