Trials of a Horse Crazy Thirty-Something: We're Just Going to Look!

It's all my mother's fault. Everything is her fault. It's her fault that we had horses when I was a kid, and it's her fault that I got back into it when I was 32. She started everything.

The problem is the Horse Gene. You're either born with it, or you're not. If you're not, you might like horses, but they won't be a problem. I tried and tried to make my daughter into a horsey girl, but she just doesn't have the Gene. She likes the idea of horses, but she's scared and just doesn't care enough to get over her fear. If you have the Gene, God help you and everyone around you. It's a sickness for which there are no support groups, no twelve-step programs and no government grants.

I carry the Horse Gene. I got it from my mother. I've lived, breathed, and slept horses for as long as I can remember. A banner day in my life was when I was nine and my mother said to me, "Jenny, we're going to go look at a horse today." I couldn't believe my ears. Finally, a horse!! A horse to love and ride and feed carrots and brush and clean up after. "We're just going to look," she said. "Right," I thought.

We went to look at Dolly, a yearling half Arabian, half Quarter Horse. She had fallen down and hurt her shoulder so she was lame, but the seller assured us that she would heal in no time. Given that my parents had horses when they were kids, this lame yearling was obviously a great choice! We took her home, "home" being a boarding stable in Cupertino, California. What did we do with this lame yearling we'd bought? Well, we loved her and took her for walks and fed her carrots and brushed her and cleaned up after her, but missed that all-important "riding" aspect. So, off we went to just look at a second horse. By the time ten years or so passed, we had just looked at about 20 different horses who all came home with us. Several of those were "my bestest friends in the whole wide world," carrying me hither and yon over hill and dale and to many ribbons and plastic trophies and cheap silver trays.