The Kentucky Horse Park

One of the highlights of our trip to Kentucky was a visit to the Kentucky Horse Park located in Lexington.

I have always loved horses. I use to dream of having my own horse from the time I knew what they were till now.

There is something about a horse that captures a girl's heart and just entrenches itself there. I can remember having a pony at one of my birthdays. I can also remember how mad I was that they wouldn't let you canter at Camp Farwell. It wasn't until I went to Camp Longacres near Buffalo, NY that I really learned how to ride. I also learn to care for a horse by brushing them, cleaning out their hoofs, and cooling them down after a ride. But the most valuable lesson I learned was how to fall off without breaking my neck. We were taught to throw our arms around the horse's neck and just roll, very loosely off. It may sound crazy but learning that skill(and it is a skill) saved me from a lot of hospital bills.

When I attended Grier School (I only agreed to go because they had horses), I fell in love with a chestnut mare with black spots on her rump and a black spot on her jaw. Her name was Hi Test and I thought she was wonderful. She had the smoothest gaits of any horse I have ever ridden but she also had a nasty habit of suddenly stopping. When she did that her rider(me) would go sailing over her head. Her favorite place to stop was when going over jumps. I had a tendency to shove my hands and so she would stop. I went over, into, under, and onto just about every fence on Grier property. In the course of 4 years, Hi Test threw me 38 1/2 times and I never broke a bone. I bruised very nicely but nothing broke. What's more, I kept going back for more. I loved that horse. Because of her antics, I didn't really have any competition when I wanted to ride her. She was usually available. I would buy her apples, carrots, red licorice(which she loved and which was so funny because she would get it stuck in her mouth) and a halter with the nickname I had given her: Fidgety. But I could never have owned a horse like my cousin Margaret.

Margaret was serious about horses; I was just a romantic.

Being at the Horse Park confirmed that for me. There is a lot of hard work involved in caring for a horse and I really am not able to do that. But I will always love horses and will always be grateful for the lessons I learned from Fidge and all the other horses I have loved over the years. The horse was there for me when I needed it.

Oh, in case you are wondering, the 1/2 time was when I was getting on Hi Test for a bareback ride. The only way I could get on was to climb the fence and jump on. On this particular day, I climbed up and jumped and she moved.