Another Horse Anekdote

The nice heat in that this summer has provided us, reminds me of the summer when i was 10 years old.

 I had spend most of the summer in the barn, enjoying the company of my horse. Also i spend two weeks in Isle of white, with my parrents in the beginning of the summer.

It was in the beginning of August and the summer vacation were about to end. It was the friday before school started on monday.
I were spending the evening at the riding stables as usual, when a familar looking man suddently entered the barn, with his horse all saddled up. He had really nice riding equipment and looked very confident.
As he entered the barns, it suddently came to my mind where I had seen him. He was appearing in some of my horse pictures and horse posters, and I actually had one of his horse training videos.
As he came closer, I nocked friendly and he smiled and gave a nice comment on my pony Bernard.

I couldn't believe that there were a famous equestrian in our small horse community. As I asked around, I found out that the famous equestrian were a good friend of the owner of the horse farms, and had come to give free leasons.

As I took my pony Bernard out for a ride, I saw the famous equestrian on the course, doing some light horse training, it was amazing to see how he really had full controle over his horse and how he made some beautiful and perfect horse jumpings.

When the equestrian finished, he rided towards us and asked if we would join him, for a light horse training session. It was a VERY LIGHT horse training. Most of the time went on asking him of horse facts and he really seems to know all about horses.

I remember that the session only took one hour, but I can still remember what a huge impact it made on all of us. We were talking about this day, for weeks to come.
And it was nice to have a genuine role model that most of all was a simple nice guy, who also was very good as horse riding.

Still the day today, it can still amaze my how small act of kindness, sometimes really can have huge impacts on those who were involved.

Memoir from the past

I were enjoying my morning coffee the other day, when I looked out the window and saw some kids running around in the street pretending to ride a horse on a broom stick.

This reminded me of a peticular episode from when I were 12 years old. 

It was an early morning in the end of spring. I were out playing with me friends on the playing ground, where i saw here for the first time. 

Her name was Isabelle and her parents were seperated. She lived with her mom in Manchester, but were here for the weekend, visiting her newly moved in dad. 

I noticed her when I were sitting on the swing and as she slowly came closer to the playing ground. She didn't notice me in the begining. Her eyes were on the boys playing soccer, but suddently she turned her head to my direction, and as we got eyecontact. She smiled and went to the swings.

"Why are you not playing football, with the other guys?", she asked!

"I suck at football! My feet are wrongly putted together." I said with a smile.

"So you're just gonna sit on the swing the whole day, then!" She replied.

"No, I'm just killing some time before noon. Then I can go play with me best friend Bernard." I said proudly.

"Who is Bernard?" She asked couriosly.

Then i started to tell her about my horse Bernard. Even though she didn't agree with me that it was the most lovely horse name, we could both agree that horses were the most beautiful being in the entire world. 

Time was flying by and even though we had sit on the swings for hours, it only seemed like minutes. We both shared the same passion for horses wheither is was horse racing, horse jumping, horse training or horse games. We were talking about a lot of horse facts, at some point it almost seemed magical and that we were actualy living in our imaginary horse world.

I can remember that i assured her that Bernard was THE dream horse. She didn't believe me, so I invited her to join me, the same noon to visit Bernard. 

First she had to ask her dad, if she could come along. Our time in the swing ended here. We ran to her house to ask for her dads permission. 

I remember that their house looked just like mine, just with way less furnitures. In the kitchen stod her dad. A late thirties man, unshaved but with a friendly face. 

"Who is your new friend, Isabelle?" He said, with the most friendly smile. 

Isabelle introduced me to her dad. He offered us a soda and while we were sitting in the kitchen and drinking, he was asking talking joyfully about his time as equestrian. 

He talked about his old days, when he was i kid like us, where he was helping out in the stables, cleaning the saddlery and making up some pony games. I was all very inspiring and fun to listen to. It seems like he new all about horses.

I remember that i was first at this point that i noticed all the horse pictures there were hanging on the walls. The house was almost like a full horse gallery! After our soda we went in to the living room where he showed us some old equestrian video. Back then I didn't know what the equestrian meaning or rather the equestrian definition was, so all her dad's stories helped me to get an explaination of this.

After the equestrian video her dad agrees upon Isabelle went with me to the barns and visit my pony Bernard, with the words "Now it is the time for you youngsters to go out to live your horse live."

As we arrived to the barns, she immediately noticed Bernard. She find him as the cutest pony in the stables. And after a prober groom, we saddle up and went out for a ride. The was a few arabian horses in the stables, and Isabelle was allowed to ride one. It was one of the most fun day of my life. I have finaly found a person in the same age, that lived nearby, who shared the same interest for horses, as I did. 

The afternoon was fastly passing by and the evening was about to start, before we realized that i was time to go home for dinner. 

Before heading home, we asked the owner of the stables of Isabelle could join the pony club, which was the case. 

After dinner I asked my mom if i could go to Isabelle's house to play. She agreed upon this and I was already half way out of the door, when she agreed. I ran to Isabelle's house and we spend the whole evening talking about horses. In some occasions her dad overlistened to our conversation and helped us clearify some of our jibberish horse facts. 

The following year the bond between Isabelle and me grow stronger, as she visited her dad every second week. All the time she was at her dad's were spended in my company. Either in one of our houses or mostly in the barns. 

It was also in one of our many sleep overs that i kissed a girl for the first time. 

It was a saturday and we had spend the whole day on the barns, as usual. At night we had planned to sleep at her place to watch the horse whispere. I clearly remember her head laying on my thights during most of the movie, when suddently she raised her head. She looked me deeply in the eyes and told me to shut them. I weren't sure of what was happening before i could feel here soft lips on mine. 

To the opposite of what some might think, this did not make it akward at all. In fact it bonded us even closer. Beside from our commen interest in horses, we actually enjoyed each others company quit a lot. 

The rest of the night we spend in each others arm. We were talking about our commen hourse dreams. To have our own barns together. To be horse breeders, breed premier equine and breed thoroughbred horses. Where the ideal horse stable should be placed. She knew a place near Manchester that would be perfect for this.

After this, we spend a lot of time dreaming together of our perfect horse world. But sadly every good things always have an end. 

As i mentioned in my earlier blog, my dad got a new job in another town, far away. So we had to move to another city. I took very hard on me to say good bye to both Bernard and Isabelle. And as time pass by, I still not can't forget my first kiss and Isabelle.

I saw Isabelle again fifteen years later in an equestrian center, to some kind of horse eventing and i felt sad about that we had gone on to live our seperate lives. Still to the day today I sometimes imagine what whould had happened if our path didn't went seperate ways. I still see her sometimes, since we are in the same horse community and we still catch up and talks like the old days. It always left me with the feeling with what-if...!

My Horse Story

Since I was a kid, I always had a soft spot towards horses. At the age of 8 I started out with my passion for horses, in a pony club. It was a typical little pony club in UK, with only two stables for horses. This horse farm, as you may call it, was my sanctuary until i was 13 years old.

I was always bullied by the other boys for my passion for horses. They always said "a horse cannot kick to a ball. What is a horse compared to football, why spending time on horses, when you can spend time on soccer. Go take some horse pictures instead, wierdo" and so i couldn't play with them, but i didn't care that much though. When i got off school I always went to the horse farm, to take care of my pony (Bernard), and make up some pony games.

It was me who had the honor to name Bernard. It took me a while to find the most suitable horse name, for my new pony. I really loved that fellow. And every day i went to the barns to do horse training with him, even though he still was a pony.

A few months after i turned 13, we had to move because my dad got a new job, far away from my hometown. I was devestated to leave Bernhard behind, but the only thing my dad could say was "It is just an horse, Alex. Get over it. There are a horse farm in the new city, you can start up there, with a new horse." So I did. And that was when I started to getting interested in horse racing. My second horse (Bertram) became fastly my new dream horse. The new horse farm i joined was much bigger and the knew all about horses. It was like I just arrived to horseworld. 

Soon Bernard was forgotten and was overjoyed with my new passion of horse racing.

I still ride horses once in a while, nowadays, and still often go watching horse racings. Furthermore i still keep updating and commenting on several horse forum, or more like horse gossip forum:)

Recently i found The Horse Forum called Bazoom (http://horses.bazoom.com/uk/), with horse gallery, horse breeding, horse eventing, horse facts, horse photos,... Simply everything a horse lover like me needs, even though time and grown up life make it hard to keep following your passion.