Memory...

I had watched a video of a horse that my trainer thought would be good for me. I really liked him and my parents thought that it could be a good thing for me. They told me that they would talk it over, and let me know. One day they told me that we were going to the barn so that they could talk to my trainer about getting him, about the costs and the responsibility. They, for some reason thought that I should know what I was getting into, when in fact I already knew. I spent so much time taking care of other people’s horses, why couldn’t I take care of my own? When it was time to leave I was looking around for my paddock boots to wear, because I never like to go to the barn without them. I couldn’t find them anywhere, and when I asked my mom if she had seen them, she told me they were in the back of the car. I thought this was weird because I hadn’t put them there, but I didn’t think much of it, and just thought they had been moved. We, my parents my sisters and I, drove to the barn. This was a little weird I thought, because if we were just going to talk about a horse, and we weren’t going to do anything else, why were my sisters coming? We got to the barn and my parents went into the office with my trainer, but before she walked in the door of the office, she told me that there was a new horse over in the other barn that she wanted me to go get and clean up a little. I walked over, thinking about nothing really, because she always had me do things like that. I found the horse where she said it would be and I had a thought that it looked like the one in the video. But no, we were just talking about getting it. I took it out and walked from that barn to the other in the snow, having an excited feeling that it could be him, but it was probably just wishful thinking. But a girl can hope, right? I walked in the barn door and my dad took a picture and I looked up and my mom was in the hayloft with a video camera. At the point where the flash went off I knew that this was my horse, this was Chateau. I was really excited, and later my mom told me that I didn’t look very happy at all. I told her that it was because I was so shocked. She thought that I must have known beforehand, because I didn’t act excited, but it was just that I had no clue. I probably had tears in my eyes, but I who really knows. I tacked him up and walked through the snow again to the arena where I got on him and the first thing he did, was buck. Not just a little, “I’m stiff buck,” but a full on “I have a ton of energy buck.” I just laughed and thought it was funny, but later my mom told me that she thought I was going to get off and say I didn’t want him, and that I didn’t like him. I rode around, and realized that this horse really was all that I had made him out to be. He was basically amazing. He went into the most beautiful frame ever, with extreme ease. His canter was beautiful, big long loping strides. You could sit it and not even move. His trot was also perfection, the kind of trot that you can sit and win an equitation class on. My trainer then told me a command to give him. It was something I had never done before. I was supposed to give the command of a canter, but keep my inside leg on him too. And he moved his haunch in. This was cleverly named haunches in. She gave me a few more commands to do, and he did them like they were nothing. Then she told me to hop off because she wanted to show me something he could do. She got on and cantered him in a pirouette, his back legs stationary, as the front pivoted around. Not only was he an amazing mover and jumper, but he was also trained up to fourth level dressage. I was so lucky to have gotten him, and I don’t know what my riding life would have been like if I didn’t.