4 Equine Tip

Growing Up with Horses
This past month, my family sent to me an article from a local newspaper called The Granby Drummer. The article was from a section called Historic Footnotes. It was about a family, a Danish couple, that moved to America in the 1800s and how they settled first in Massachusetts and then in a country town in Connecticut, the very same town I grew up in. The article for me is a treasured relic of some of the most influential people in my life. The family that I knew in the early 1960s to the mid 1970s included two brothers and a sister.
One of the brothers, Joe, was like a Grandfather to me and it is to this great man that I owe my deep appreciation and interest in horses to this date. At 4 1/2 through age 18, I spent many weekends at their farm and would either walk from school, ride my bike, or get a ride to their farm. Joe would take me to horse shows. Joe would take me to his friends' farms to ride their horses too. He would help me hitch one of the ponies, Kelly, to a small cart and we would drive down the dirt Petersen Road. The other pony, Dewey, taught me how to fall off and not get hurt. It was on this pony bareback that I really learned to ride and stay on.
The farm was like a haven for me growing up. I felt like I was connected to something grand and important. As I grew up, about age 9 years old, I cleaned their old cow barn and Joe came home from the auction with a weanling dark bay Morgan horse, who I named Lady. I remember I couldn't ride her till she was about a 1 and 1/2 years old, but I used to put driving lines on her and drive her around the house and driveway. Sometimes she would leave me in the dust. When she was 2 years old, I started putting the saddle on and did ground work with her with the reins. Then one day I got on her back and rode her alone in the small indoor barn. She fell down and would not get up. I ran up to the house and got Joe and he came to the barn and got her up and led her while I was on her back. Then we went outside solo. That was one of the most memorable days of my life. From then on, I rode Lady everywhere. I took her to soccer games at school. I rode her all over town to my friends' homes. Sometimes I was gone from the farm a long time and Joe would come looking for me.
It is so difficult now as a farm owner to allow children these same opportunities I had. First of all it is very expensive to raise and maintain horses. Then there are safety issues working with horses.
Reading this article this month, I realize how blessed I was to have had such an enriched childhood experience. And I truly owe my equine enterprise to these great people who shared their love of their farm and their animals and whom so graciously were like family to me for a major part of my youth. How great it would be for all of us if we could influence other lives in this same way. Enjoy your farm.
10-24-03