Your Stories

Forever Friends

This story may sound a little funny to those of you who aren't horsecrazy people but to people who are this is probably a story they know all too well.

The first horse I ever rode was named Tara, she was o.k. Just not quite the crazy horse I had envisaged myself riding. The stables where I rode taught both Western and English style horsemanship, I had decided when I first started that I would like to learn both, but soon realised that I preferred English riding as it was so much more daring. After every ride I would untack her and groom her well, then one afternoon as I was putting her into her stall I saw the most beautiful horse that I had ever seen, he was stood across the yard, a leopard appaloosa. His name was Danny.

Upon arrival for my next lesson I asked my riding instructor if I could ride him, "oh that ugly thing, why would you want to ride him?" I explained to her that I thought he was the most gorgeous horse that I had ever seen. After a bit of coaxing she finally agreed to let me ride Danny on my next lesson. I was so excited I just couldn't wait. A week had gone by, my day at school had seemed so long, as soon as the bell went I rushed out of the door and all the way to the stables. I got there and the jumps had been set up ready for me. I couldn't understand however why they were so low, I was used to a jump of at least 4½ feet and these were less than a foot off the ground. I was a little disappointed and went to ask my trainer why they were set so low. She explained that Danny hadn't been trained to jump; at that point my trainer thought that I had changed my mind about riding him, but I hadn't. I finally mounted him and we rode out to the arena to do our warm ups. He was so smooth and delicate I wanted to canter him forever. He was like a dream, jumping with no problem at all, moving on to higher jumps without any problem (he jumped twice as high as the jumps themselves). I was amazed. I decided to lease Danny. I visited him everyday to groom him and rode him every other day. We were a team, partners and true friends, I decided to buy him and take him home.

About two years later I started working at a stables that catered for people with disabilities. I took Danny for visits and the children absolutely adored him, so much in fact that they started using him for a lesson horse. I really enjoyed my work and soon started teaching riding for the disabled myself. We continued our work together, still the perfect team. Then a few years later Danny got a serious case of colic, shortly after he died. I was distraught and cancelled all of my lessons, I must have cried for a week. This was a while ago now, I still cry myself to sleep on occasion.

I wrote this story for you Danny. I will always love you and cherish the memories that we shared together.

Gillian..........

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