More of my life

To continue my life story, before Linda appeared on the scene, I lived with a man named Jack in the southern Adirondack mountains for 10 years. There were no other horses there, so the only person I could boss was Jack. He was very nice and let me call most of the shots. We used to ride up in the woods when he was younger, but then he got older and was sick. He couldn't ride me, so mostly he would come out to the paddock and feed me treats. After a while it was too hard for him to keep up with my many needs, so he invited Linda over to meet me. This is when I was 18 years old. I was underwhelmed and turned my back to her just to let her know that she was nobody to me.

Darned if she didn't come over anyway (how rude) and put my halter on and walk me around like she was in charge or something. On the second visit, she put a saddle on me and rode (or tried to). I made it clear that I wasn't interested by refusing to move even one step. She became very annoying, banging me with her legs and heels, so I gave her what she wanted. I ran like a maniac around my little arena, threw my head back and conked her one, then headed straight for a tree that Jack never removed. This should have discouraged her, but no, she persisted until I finally decided just to walk for her and get it over with. I looked at Jack, and he was smiling, the traitor!

A few days after that, a trailer arrived. Me, trying to be cooperative, hopped on, thinking I was going for a little ride and then back to Jack's. I ended up at this big barn with lots of other horses that I didn't know. Linda was waiting for me, and took me to a stall in the big barn. I called and called for Jack, but he didn't come. Now I was getting upset, because this was all wrong. I wanted my own little barn with Jack and his treats. My stomach got very upset and lots of manure went all over the place. It was not a good night, even though a girl did bring me some grain and hay. And Linda seemed to think this was all wonderful. I really hated her at this moment. But after I spent a few weeks there, it wasn't so bad. I made a couple new friends, a mare named Leora that we would go riding with (with her human, Cheryl), and an Arabian mare named Beau, who became my paddock buddy. Linda and I had lots of adventures riding in the mountains and the woods here, and Cheryl helped her be a better horseperson than she was. More about this place later.