By: Nancy Pugliese

I am the mother of a daughter with special needs. About 6 years ago my older daughter had been taking riding lessons for more than a year and we decided it was time to start looking to purchase a horse of her own. Her sister Toni-Anne was non-verbal at this time and petrified of the barn and the horses. She would spend the entire hour or her sisters lesson screaming. She would prefer the discomfort of bathroom accidents to entering the barn to use the facilities.

By: MONICA RIVERA

let me tell you about something that happened to me a couple of years back. I was probably about nine or ten years old. It was summer vacation, and I had decided to spend it with some relatives in a part of Mexico where everything is still done the old-fashioned way. I woke up early one morning to drive out to my uncles` pasture, to help milk the cows.

What I didn’t know was that my uncle had just bought some wild horses. They were loose in the pasture. While my cousins began gathering the cattle, I silently sneaked away and walked to the far end of the field, where the horses grazed peacefully. There were three of them. Two black ones, which looked like twins, and a bay one. They were unlike any horses I had ever seen. Their backs weren’t arched from riding, their coats gleamed with the rising sun, and their eyes were lively with mischief. They were never scared of me, but they watched me intently.

By: Harolyn Deason

I’d competed in Team Roping, ridden in “The Sweet Assortment” equestrian drill team, done some gymkhana as a child and even run barrels. Dad raised Thoroughbred racehorses, but at 5’10” I was too tall to be a jockey and one of the few times I rode English the horse slipped and fell on me.

A friend mentioned that Team Penning was just getting organized in our town. I hadn’t heard of it but it sounded like fun. It was the job of a 3-person team to enter a herd of 30 numbered cattle, bring 3 to the other end of the arena and put them in a catch pen. This all needed to happen in about 40 seconds to be competitive and you couldn’t have more than 4 cows cross a foul line. It was fast paced, competitive, and there was a team of three (I am very social), so I accepted the challenge. I would need an athletic horse and probably some lessons to learn to “read” cattle.

By: Cindy Woolston

Jacob was eleven years old when he found his horse lying down in the pasture in a puddle of blood. War Pony’s foot had gotten tangled in the barbed wire fence and a big chunk of his back hoof was missing. He was too weak to move. Jacob ran as fast as he could to the house. I immediately called our veterinarian who lived about 30 miles away.

It seemed like an eternity, but when the veterinarian finally arrived he took one look at the injured horse and shook his head. He thought that War Pony had lost too much blood. I whispered to him, “Whatever it takes, just get this horse better for my son.” The veterinarian met Jacob’s pleading eyes and then took out his bag and went to work.

By: Karen L. Waite

Horses are my life. I know that seems like an extreme, overused statement, but in my case, it’s really true. I remember every stage of my life with respect to what horse or horses were around at the time, and the lessons I learned from those horses.

For example, when I was 7, I got my first pony. Her name was Candy and she was a little bay Shetland with a heart of gold and a stubborn streak a mile wide. She was a great pony to start with and we had all kinds of fun together. At least I had fun. She would probably argue that point. My father also had an Appaloosa gelding named King Bob. When I was 9, my parents divorced, and during that same time period, both Candy and King Bob died. It was my first exposure to how difficult life can be, and I realized just how little control I had over what went on in the world.

By: Danielle Thibault

It all happened one day when i went to my riding lesson. I saw the most beautiful palomino mare in the stall. i asked my instructor if i could ride her and i could! Palominos have been my favorite horse ever since. Of course being young and wanting to know everything about horses i asked all the questions i could about her. her breed, age, height.

By: Eliza Dandridge

I acquired him like I acquired my other horse. I was going to work with him, but I fell in love. With Sierra, it was just lust. She was a big beautiful mare. She should have been a, then, thirteen year old girl’s perfect first horse, had it not been for her horrible attitude under saddle. I was bucked off of her more times than I had ever been bucked off of any horse in my ten years of riding. But with Bear, it was love. From the first time I saw him, to today when I went out to the stable and rode him and fed him. True love never comes easy though. You always have to give up something, in my case; it involved a lot of pain.

By Charli Ann Stevens

Have you ever met a horse that was absolutely destined to be yours—yours not only once, but twice and forever more?

By: Kelly Castano

I don’t think that I’ve ever cried so much over something. I’ve cried tears of pain, joy, frustration, and recently grief all over my horse Kidd. It had been 3 months of horse searching after I lost my draft x mare and I wanted another mare just like her. It had to be just like her. I even refused an adorable mare and foal. I first heard about Kidd as a horse who a lady was giving away to a good home. If I had only known why. Kidd was a 15 year old off the track TB gelding. Definitely not what I was looking for. I went to see him because my mom wanted me to.

By: Mary McCandless

Cassie scowled nervously. This horse show was one of the biggest shows she and her horse Babette had ever been in, and important people were watching her. This was part of the culmination of long years of struggle to be noticed by somebody – anybody – with enough money and influence to buy her a world class horse and sponsor her in her bid to make the Olympic team. She grasped the reins just below the bit and pushed Babette forward, walking up and down, up and down in the holding area outside the arena. One more rider to go.