Home is Where the Memories Are

The almost-week of blog silence has been largely due to the trip to Indiana that I took over the weekend.  (Friday-Monday)

Typically, going home means an extreme lack of all things pony, but this time around I managed to arrange a lesson at my old barn, HHS.  I haven't been there since my move to Missouri four years ago, so I was pretty excited!  And, as it turns out, so was my two-year-old niece!

Unknown to me, baby R has developed a horsey obsession.  I had Leo's blanket shipped to my parents' house so that I wouldn't miss its delivery, and R was all about seeing it first thing in the morning when she woke up.  (Side note, blanket does not fit my pony - apparently Weatherbeeta uses its own special secret measuring scale. Ugh.)  One part of the trip involved a road trip to Michigan to see more family, and I kept R entertained by showing her all of the videos that I have on my phone - by the end of the car ride, she was requesting "More Leo videos!" and could tell the difference between the Leo, Sherlock, and Dragon videos (again, she's only 2, so this was kind of amazing).

Weekend steed. 
Sunday was the planned pony day, and my mom drove me and R the 30 minutes to my childhood barn.  I rode Brutus, who I actually remembered from before - he was brand new to the barn right before I moved away.  He's a super stocky paint thing, very willing, and pretty fun all around.

Blurry pony face!
Baby R was ecstatic.  She wanted to help me walk him to cool him out, and she wanted to pet and love on him and brush him. It was literally the most adorable thing that I have ever seen.  Brutus was incredible for all of this, and even gave her a sloppy kiss. 

Gentle pony
And, incredibly, I got to see some dear old friends.

Jessie
I had a rocky start to riding.  HHS was actually my third barn; I think that I was around 8 or 9 when I started there.  And I was TERRIFIED.  I refused to ride anything other than the sweet pony that I started out on (there were some bad falls and a nasty "trainer" behind this).  There were several attempts to move me to an actual horse, but none really worked. And then Jessie arrived at the barn.  I was probably 10 or 11, definitely outgrowing the pony at that point.  What scared me the most was the size of the horses that weren't my beloved pony.  Jessie isn't small, by any means, but something about his quiet and gentle demeanor just worked for me.  He was the first horse, I think, that I ever fully trusted.  And he's still there.  He has to be pushing 30, at the least, but still trucking terrified small children around like the saint he is.

Puppy. (photo circa 2012)
I also got to see this delightful monster, my absolute love from my college days, Jack.  This horse gave me so much confidence when I got back into riding after taking a year off.  He was my partner.  I wanted to buy him, but he wasn't for sale.  I still want to buy him, actually.  He made such a huge impact on me.  And he's still around.  I was terrified that he would be gone.  There were many, many scratches in all of his favorite spots. Unfortunately, I neglected to bring treats.

from 2012
Early 2012 was a pretty dark time in my life, for various reasons.  Thankfully, I (along with my kickass college mentor) had founded my alma mater's IHSA huntseat team the previous fall, which is when I started riding Jack.  In the spring of 2012, those weekly Jack-rides were my saving grace.  And then, that summer, I came to Missouri for an internship.  The internship turned into a full-time job offer, and I moved to Missouri and barely looked back. The job turned into grad school, and for three years there were no horses in my life at all.  A major contributing factor to the second date with my current boyfriend was definitely the part where he mentioned that the property he was managing had horses.  Yup.  Boyfriend brought horses back into my life.  6 months of dating later I started taking lessons at the current barn, and the rest is history.  

from 2012
This sweet, incredible creature really and truly set the foundation for my adult riding career.  I am so very grateful that I got the chance to see him again.  I didn't get any good photos of him this time around (thanks, crappy barn lighting).  Baby R got to meet him.  Maybe, someday, I'll get to ride him again.  Stranger things have happened.

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