My First Horse (s)!

When I was growing up, I loved horses but it seemed a common passion with most girls at that age so I wasn't taken seriously.  I had a couple of horse posters and my 'dream' horse was a thoroughbred with white markings on her face and I would dream of going riding out in the bush and coming home to my farm house, where I lived with my family.  In the morning I would wake up from my dream, in a suburban house, leading a normal life, walking to school and riding my bike after school.  As life went on and I got older, the dream of having my own horse seemed unrealistic for my life and I filed it away, every now and again taking it out to dust off the cobwebs and dream again before returning to reality.

When Dave asked  me to marry him, he seemed to think he had nothing to offer and did not think that I would enjoy the life he was asking me to take on.  I tried to reassure him that he was making my dreams come true but he thought I was too good to be true.  After I'd been living there a couple months, I made it known that I wanted to find my 'own' horse. We had 20 acres and 2 horses already but I wanted one that was mine, so I started looking on Craig's List for my horse.

Dave was a long haul driver so not home very often and while he agreed that having my own horse would be good, I think he secretly wondered how I would be able to find the right horse at the right price.  One weekend, Dianne (Dave's eldest daughter) and I drove for about an hour to look over a few horses selling at a ranch.  There were a couple horses I liked but they didn't seem suitable for me and the one I really liked was too expensive.

It was an interesting experience and the owners told us, "Humans don't pick the horse, the horse picks their owner."

The next day we travelled to a place closer to home and I found myself falling in love with two thoroughbred horses, Stormy (4 years old) and Dee (5 years old).  Stormy was so affectionate and she loved being petted and played with.  Dianne would lean up against her and she wouldn't move.  Dee, on the other hand, watched from a disance and at first, I thought she was 'stand offish'.  As I couldn't choose between the two, I decided that I would buy one for Dave and one for me.  Since Stormy (with the blue halter) was 17 hands high, she was the obvious choice for Dave and I willingly chose Dee for myself.

I had my heart set on the horses but had to convince Dave that they were our horses.  He rode out with me, chatted to the owners, who he said were full of horse traders talk and who he felt might have exaggerated a little bit about the horses good qualities but he too fell in love with the horses.  He told me they were so placid, the worst thing they would ever do, is stand on my foot to let me know of their displeasure.

I remembered his words when I was leading Dee from the horse trailer down to the pasture but it didn't hurt too much.  We put Stormy and Dee in the corral and the other two horses, Magic, an 23 year old, almost all white paint, and Zane, a 6 yr old Arabian gelding were separated from them out in the pasture.  Dee and Stormy were young and a little frightened and Dee knocked down the corral fence and got into the pasture.  It was going to be a wild night so I went outside, tied up the fence a bit and Stormy was inside it and Dee was outside. 

Every time I looked out the window, Dee was standing close to the corral fence where Stormy was penned in.  If Zane or Magic went too close to the fence, she would run at them and chase them away.  She was very protective of Stormy that night.  The next morning before Dianne and I went to the fair, I let Stormy out of the corral too and hoped the horses would still be there when we returned later that afternoon.