A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses Part 4

The beginning of this story is here.

I don't know about the rest of the Baby Boomer Generation but I'm pretty driven. I don't do anything half way, I just dive in headfirst and immerse myself in what ever I do. Once I've made up my mind, there's no dissuading me. The "dream horse thing" was no different. If anyone had tried to tell me that I shouldn't buy a green broke six-year-old Arabian mare for my dream horse of choice, it just went in one ear and out the other. Even the fact I had been dumped and the Arabian horse in danger of breaking her legs was not enough to stop me or even slow me down. The horse was still for sale and I was going to find a way to buy my dream horse.

Not to long before my 40th birthday, I made a deposit and signed a contract on Scandalous. It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears and three full years to pay off the Arabian horse (who cost a lot more than my first house) but I did it. With the support of my husband, Dave, who hated the street fairs and mall shows I did selling crafts to pay for the horse, I managed to pull it off.

I still worked 8 to 5 at the training/show barn six days a week except when I had a craft show to attend. I worked long hours at night making the crafts to sell at the shows and I rarely got to ride the Arabian horse.

I had hoped with all of the extra time that I spent at the farm grooming and turning out Arabian horses that I would get some lessons thrown in. That didn't happen. I was totally on my own. They took whatever I gave over and above my agreed work hours and offered nothing in return. One of my friends once described it, "They saw you coming, they took you money and ran!"

Maybe that's true but I didn't care. While it would have been nice to get some help to be sure I was on the right foot with my dream horse, not getting it didn't put a damper on my enthusiasm. I had waited too long getting into horses. I had no plans of letting anything slow me down. So while I worked twice as much as the training barn as I was supposed to for board for the Arabian horse, I saw it as getting twice as much experience towards becoming the horse woman I dreamed of being.

The only time I really got to spend much time with my new Arabian horse was when the trainers were gone off to an Arabian horse show. Usually, they would take a large string of horses so there wasn't quite as much work to do. And it was easier to get through the long list of horses to be turned out or lunged without the interruptions of the trainers or owners. That was when I got to ride Scandalous.

It was on one of those occasions that I had my second wreck with the Arabian horse. I'd finished my work with the other horses. I was riding the mare in the round pen because I wasn't confident enough yet to lope on my own in the main arena. Without saying a word to me the farm maintenance man/stall cleaner went up overhead to water the arena. He turned the fire hose on the horse and I inside the round pen. Needless to say, it was not a fun experience. I ended up in the mud and the horse was terrified.

I spoke to the owners of the facility and to the trainers about it but nothing was ever done. Reliable stall cleaners for a big facility are harder to come by than free grooms, I guess. It was not the last time that my riding or even ground safety with the horses was sabotaged by this man. And it wasn't the last time the fire hose was the method but I only ended up in the dirt once more because of him. I got to be pretty good at getting that Arabian horse stopped when she was scared out of her little horse wits and I learned to handle spooked horses on the ground equally as well.

The bad thing was the Arabian horse got to expect something bad was going to happen. The mare developed the habit of running off at the lope at the least little sound. The horse didn't do it all of the time, usually when I least expected it, but she did it enough for me to be concerned. A couple of different assistant trainers worked at the training/show barn while I was there with Scandalous. Both of them witnessed the horse taking off frightened at the lope. I had told them about it, but until they actually saw it they didn't really understand. Both gave me helpful ideas on how to curtail the behavior. While I did get proficient at getting her stopped, it was several years and a few horses later before I was horse woman enough to know how to really fix it.

So what happens to dreams when you finally attain them? I've noticed an odd thing about that. Dreams have a funny way of growing and changing. Mine was no different. Now that I finally had my dream Arabian horse, I began dreaming about the things I would do with her ......................and the horses to come.

To be continued....

Part 5

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