Buying My First Horse

Your First Horse.

By

J.H.Gilbert

Copy write 2009-10-20

 I fell in love with horses, as most people do, as a young child. Like most people, I never had the opportunity to own one ‘til much later in life, and as an adult sometimes we do things that we shouldn't do and that is where my life began with horses.

 Through this journey I made a few mistakes or maybe I should say a lot of mistakes, but  this one little mistake that I made, I gained a teacher and a life long friend that would see me through some very difficult times and I can honestly say they saved my life. This is the beginning and how I became the student of this magnificent animal.

 (Mistake) number one: going to an auction sale.

(Mistake) number two was putting up my hand, and the auctioneer yelling sold before the bid really even got started. I paid one hundred and sixty dollars for a baby, I knew nothing about taking care of.

 I brought her home; she was a scruffy looking thing of six months old, and had never been handled by a humans hands. Scrawny and mangy looking but with an eye that captured my soul.

  This poor little thing was frighted. This was the first time she had ever been away for her momma. The humans she had only seen from a far herded onto a trailer to be taken to her new life. 

  Thank god one of my neighbours was a horsey person or I would have been hooped. For I wasn't even sure what or how much a horse ate let alone how much time and work goes into training one. So I brought her home, running her of the trailer and into a stall. The thought was to have her contained so she would have to depend on me for food and water, a bonding of sorts. 

  I knew she needed water, so that was the first thing I did, but when it came to actually getting the bucket into the stall without getting killed, I had a problem.   

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 (Mistake) number three was having that horsey friend on hand. For as all horse people they get a kick out of watching a newbie.  She laughed, knowing that I had a problem with going into the stall and she shook her head and looked me straight in the eye and said, “Damn it, just walk in and place the bucket on the floor!”

 

 Now you'll find that horse people only give advice when asked. Beyond that; they will watch and they will chuckle, mostly at you rather than with you, and they have a tendency to shake their heads a lot, and I haven’t quite figured out this ritual yet, although it is something I find myself now doing  from time to time now that I have a bit more experience with horses.

 "Okay." I said to myself. This should be an easy task to do." I took a deep breath. Opened the stall door and stepped in. No problem. I felt proud about myself .Until she jumped. Then I jumped, into the manger. I felt a warm trickle stream down the inside of my legs. Now I asked myself:  “What the hell are you doing here?” You have no knowledge and you are scared to death, and now not only do you have to figure a way out of there, you have to hope that your horsey friend will except the explanation the you spilt the bucket of water on yourself when you retreated to the manger for safety. 

I clung to the side of the stall. My heart pounded. The sweat soaked my clothing (well, some of my clothing. The rest was already wet from the accident I had earlier).  Inch by long inch I made my way to the stall door to make my escape. I watch her closely hoping she didn't move, her tiny legs were quivering as much as mine

Her eyes were wild as she met my gaze. She was beautiful I thought to myself. I took a sigh of relief as I closed and locked the stall door behind me. The first night was over, and tomorrow was going to be a brand new adventure for her and for myself, and the rest of the mistakes would have to wait for now. With the safety of a wall between us, we could begin to know each other with out so much fear. 

 I stayed with her for most of the night watching like a little child planning out future together, and hoping that she would forgive me for my lack of knowledge. Little did I know then that some of her lessons would hurt and then would stay with me for the rest of my life.