Returning from yet another extended deadline scramble with the news that Disney has made a film about one of the greatest horses of all time--Triple Crown winner Secretariat. I remember (or at least I think I remember) all three races--the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness in Baltimore and the Belmont Stakes in New York--and watching Secretariat win each one. Wow.
Those were the days (1973) when televised races were my only contact with horses. I'd visited riding stables occasionally in 6th and 7th grades, when I could earn the $3 it cost to ride and talk my mom or my friend's mom into driving out there. The poor animals would be standing, fully tacked up, tied to a post or hitching rack, heads down as they dozed in the hot Florida sun. My friend and I would climb on and walk for an hour through the pine woods, hoping for a trot but rarely getting one, until we headed back to the barn. Then the horses would lift their heads, their gaits would quicken and sometimes we would even find ourselves cantering along the sandy path, holding tight to the saddle horn as we raced for home.
Poor horses. I'm sure they've all gone to Heaven by now and are free to run through cool, grassy pastures without a saddle or a rider in sight.
By ninth grade, my horse-loving friend had moved away and I didn't have time for everything, so I put my horse passion aside...except for the Triple Crown on TV.
Now I feel blessed every morning and evening to go out to the pasture and feed my own herd. I love living in a community of horse-lovers, where the topic of most conversations sooner or later comes round to what's happening in the field, at the show, with the farrier or the vet. However I acquired this passion for horses, I have finally come to the place I always wanted to be.
Gratefully,
Cheryl
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