Who is The Barefoot Lady?

I don’t clearly remember the first time I was near a horse, but I do remember the first time I sat on one. My Aunt Peggy was the horsewoman of the family. She put me on her horse, Bear, when I was three and took a Polaroid picture that I still have until this day. From that moment on my mantra was “when can I take riding lessons?” and, “why can’t I have a horse?” Let me tell you three year olds do not grasp the concept that it is too expensive. I pestered my mom for years. When I was 7 she finally gave in and bought weekly riding lessons at a local farm for me. There would be many sets of weekly lessons over the years.

When I was a teenager, Aunt Peggy decided it was obvious I wasn’t going to quit. So she signed me up for Pony Club and let me register with one of the horses she kept on her farm. If you are a kid who sees him or herself in a future horse career of some kind, the U.S. Pony Club is the way to go. Choose an organized active club and get involved in everything they offer.

After years of lessons and Pony Club (occasionally skipping school to go trail riding,) Aunt Peggy introduced me to my first boss, a local horse farm owner. I worked riding and training horses and cleaning stalls until I was 18 and then went to work at one of our local tack shops. I bought the first horse of my own, “ Redford,” from Judy, my first boss. He was a big straight chestnut TB with a little QH mixed in and he was awesome. His go anywhere, do anything, just plain good attitude will stick with me forever. About a year after I bought Red, he injured himself on a fence and was misdiagnosed by a Vet. He had a fractured pelvis but nobody knew it. He lived the good life for the next two years or so until the arthritis from the injury got so bad I had to put him down. It was the heart break of my life. My family and friends tried to console me and distract me from the loss as best they could but nobody really knows how first horse loss feels unless they have been there.

 

 

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