Let's go back ten years. Here I am in my early thirties ready to embark on a rodeo career- well, a weekend warrior rodeo career... until I became a world class Barrel Racer. I had attitude, dreams, ambition and I had ridden growing up....on dude ranches, friends horses, summer riding lessons, camp.... and now I was going to make it happen. Yes, I was going to make my dreams come true and be a full blown cowgirl...from the city of Chicago. One problem, I need a horse and tack and a truck and a trailer and to learn how to run barrels. Sounds feasible...or so I thought. Meet the horse once called "Princess":
She is papered with the AQHA (cannot find the papers to share her lineage but I do know she has Go Man Go and Easy Jet in her ancestry) and was trained to run barrels. I was warned she was not too fast but a good horse to begin learning barrels. Angel, the owner at the time had my then boyfriend, now ex-husband, working with her to iron out some of the kinks. Ed had a few hours on her and had decided it was the kid and not the horse. To test his theory he told me to climb on and off we went. I have no memory of anything eventful happening during that ride. I do remember she was a bit obstinate. Angel decided that the kid- to- horse match was bad so up for sale went Princess. They say timing is everything. I want to run barrels and poof here is a trained horse for sale. SOLD! Now, there is no way I am going to own anything names Princess. No way. Nope. Hence, the name Cheyenne.
Up to this point, I had not had a chance to test her skill. I had ridden her along miles and miles of dirt roads and played the "pretend this is a barrel" game but I had not put her to the test. Finally we have an arena and ready, set, go! We are off. She takes off beautifully and we get to the barrel. She runs me into it cutting too close on her turn. Ouch, my shin! On to the next barrel. I pull her a bit wider to set her up and bam! Ouch, my other shin! Hmmm, I think there is more than a clover leaf pattern happening here. Last barrel. Ok, set it up wider. Ouch, my shin! Now I understand what was meant by rough around the edges.
Long story short my barrel horse turned out not to be a barrel horse and I am a Payroll Manager not a professional cowgirl.
Over the years Chey has turned into a walking injury. Yep. Like my friend Leah's amazing "Jazu the Wonder Horse" I have the affectionately renamed, "Princess Cheyenne of Bubble Wrap Land." It has been one leg issue after another. Just this past fall she cut both her legs on the propeller of the bass boat motor!
Cheyenne is 18 this year and she is my rock. When I can ride her, she is a truly great mount.
And thus ends this part of the story of the first horse I ever bought...
Too much 'tude for me, but she's a pretty girl. Is she sound these days?
ReplyDeleteI read it, I READ IT! And I admit, I did giggle at you a bit. But in reality our dreams are what push us forward aren't they? It's not the achieving so much as the trying that really matters.
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