When I was 21, I bought my first horse. Sounds amazing, right? It was a dream come true. Up to that point, I had only dreamed of the possibility. I had spent my years working hard in exchange for any time in the tack. My parents kindly gave me a week or two each summer at a riding camp and some lessons through the year. By the time I was 21, I had completed the Humber College Coaching Program and was a certified coach.
So I stumbled across this amazing video about a week ago [click HERE to view video]. The story starts off like your typical rescue story, but this one got a happy ending. About halfway through, I'm thinking to myself "okay… what’s so different about this story." You can watch countless rescue videos all day and they all follow a similar storyline, each story unique, but all following a heartbreaking pattern. But this one had a plot twist. An actual lawsuit was being filed against the horse’s former abuser who had severely neglected him, but on behalf of the horse!
After I had to put my last horse down, I promised myself I’d wait at least six months before I started looking for another horse to see if I really did want to continue riding, as how could I ever replace my once in a lifetime partner who had taught me so much in the world of Dressage? Of course I couldn’t help myself and before too long I was flipping through all the online horse sales and happened to come across Neptuno Cen (Oso). On paper none of it made sense – he was big, over 17 hands, and barely started on his training, but there was just something about that horse.
And in this circumscription, this Valley stands up and declares that what is true here is not the same as that for the rest of the prairie. The place itself declares that it stands just as much a part of the prairie as any straight-lined road reaching for the horizon. The Qu’Appelle Valley and its River and Lakes know what they are. And in our moment while standing alone with them, they ask us to know the same about ourselves, to know who we are, and to know for what truths we are willing to stand, to be different, so as to defend them.
Elizabeth the 1st hated travelling in a carriage and chose to ride everywhere. She hunted with hawks and so she helped saddles to progress a bit, but we still fell off. It was a problem as fashionable long dresses were not suitable to ride astride and it was considered unladylike to ride astride. The insecure design of the early sidesaddle contributed to the popularity of the Palfrey, a smaller horse with smooth ambling gaits, as a suitable mount for women.
