In the early summer of 1980 my grandfather bought this beautiful little horse from the stables where I was taking riding lessons. I have no idea what her name was before she was mine, but I named her Magic. I spent several summers riding her around the fields at my grandparents place, usually bareback, because when you put a saddle on her she had this quirky habit of going one time around the pasture and then stopping (probably a consequence of all that time teaching kids to ride at the stables). To get her to go again you had to hop off and hop back on. I was convinced for a long time that she was the result of the wish I made when I blew out the candles on my ninth birthday cake. That year I closed my eyes and wished wished wished for a horse that was all black except for a white star on her head - a few weeks later there she was being unloaded at my grandparents house. If you look closely at the photo below you can see her white star peeking out from under her mane. It wasn't my grandfather's way to be overly indulgent with gifts and material things, a fact that has made this memory from my childhood grow sweeter and sweeter over the years.
In the early summer of 1980 my grandfather bought this beautiful little horse from the stables where I was taking riding lessons. I have no idea what her name was before she was mine, but I named her Magic. I spent several summers riding her around the fields at my grandparents place, usually bareback, because when you put a saddle on her she had this quirky habit of going one time around the pasture and then stopping (probably a consequence of all that time teaching kids to ride at the stables). To get her to go again you had to hop off and hop back on. I was convinced for a long time that she was the result of the wish I made when I blew out the candles on my ninth birthday cake. That year I closed my eyes and wished wished wished for a horse that was all black except for a white star on her head - a few weeks later there she was being unloaded at my grandparents house. If you look closely at the photo below you can see her white star peeking out from under her mane. It wasn't my grandfather's way to be overly indulgent with gifts and material things, a fact that has made this memory from my childhood grow sweeter and sweeter over the years. 
I was a horse crazy little girl too, but only ended up with Breyer models. What a wonderful gift!
ReplyDeleteSweet story!
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