History: I paid for this?

[This is an installment in "How we got into horses". See right sidebar for other posts.]

The day of Sierra's 8th birthday party arrived. We drove and drove out west to the middle of nowhere; I wondered if maybe I had the address down wrong. But finally, I saw a blue house with a huge red-roofed barn behind it, like Susan described on the phone. At the entryway, a sign said, "Dreamcatcher Ranch."

I drove our minivan down a skinny dirt road past a ramshackle arena full of loose boards, weeds and rocks. I parked beside a sedan and we got out. A woman came out of the house. She had blonde graying hair pulled back in a pony tail and glasses, and wore a white shirt and jeans. She had a way of bouncing lightly on her feet.

"I thought I'd have my daughter's help," she said, "but she had to run an errand."

Susan continued a friendly chatter on the way to the stables, where the horses were. Four horses had saddles on, and looked ready to go. But without her daughter, I had to fill in. I didn't know what I was doing, but somehow, I got kids on, riding double, without any incident. I wasn't sure what I had gotten us into; I had all these horses and girls to keep track of. Some girls were scared which then scared the horses which then scared me. Ally said ,"Oh, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!" I wasn't much help, really, and Susan was too busy to intervene all the time. I thought, "I paid for this?"

Then the riding was over, all girls accounted for. Sierra had a big smile on her face, and I felt it was worth my feeling like a fool.

Before we left, Susan told me about her life growing up and how she got into horses. She told me that as a teenager, she did not get her parents' support on horses. She worked and saved up, bought her own horse and tack and paid for its boarding. When she needed to go to a 4-H horse show, she had to ride the horse down for about an hour and back. She vowed then that if anyone ever needed a ride for their horse, she would help. And if a kid wanted to ride a horse, she would help. She owned several horses, and they were mostly for others to enjoy.

I looked at this unpretentious woman, at her rough-shod ranch full of flies and piles and discarded appliances. All of a sudden, it didn't seem so rough anymore to me.

"When you turn 9," she told Sierra, "see me about 4-H. I can let you borrow a horse. I've done that with other kids before." Borrow a horse? That sounded good to me. We thanked her and Sierra began counting the days.

Next: Borrowing a Horse