Memory of a barn

It was when I was seven years old my parents acquired our first horse. It was a beautiful appaloosa majestic as all horse are, he had a arrow of white down the center of his face. I recall the drive to pick him up, the owners were moving and could not take him where they were headed. They lived about thirty minutes away which felt like an hour to my childish mind. I sat there gazing out the window trying to make time slow down. As I focused on different parts of where the road meets the grass. Looking ahead to make it slow and closer to me to speed it up. All this to trick my mind that I in fact was bending time.

The moment we pulled into the drive way time stopped. I was so excited to see this beautiful creature and befriend it, nothing else at the time mattered to me. This horse didn’t like everyone at first but he took a liking to me as I did to him. Such a wonderful creature towering over my little self. I was worried to ride it at first because I was scared it would hurt the horse. I wanted him to be my friend, I did not see him as something to ride. Certainly at this point I didn’t think it enjoyed the feeling of a human on its back.

My parents had friends at this horse stable so we got him ready to go with us there. We drove even longer to the horse farm where this big old white barn was. Over the next few months we would go there and I would spend time watching my parents with this horse. Learning how to clean out the hooves and brush them just right. We would comb the beautiful mane and feed him and some other horses carrots right out of my hands. I would always giggle as they got there slimy saliva all over my hands or face when they would lick me.

I had a lot of fun at this farm. I was an explorer in my young age climbing the hay stacks in the barn up and around while my parents when riding. There was a hatch on the other side of the hay stack that dropped down into a horse stall bellow. I would play hide and seek with my sisters and brothers, we would run around and hide in the barn. We all found our own spots but none of them knew about that secret hatch. To trick them I would hide in the hay climbing around to the hatch and as they would get close I’d climb through leaving hay up top of the hatch.

There were so many fun days in this white horse barn. One time I did this and someone else’s kid I did not know was in that stable cleaning it. When i jumped down we both scared each other so much we ran different directions away from each other. I never did end up finding who he was.

Soon after we moved to another horse stable with a red barn with another similar hidden hatch. Here I would spend a lot more time with our horse and the two other horse we would soon get. Every time I jumped through that hatch I felt like I entered I new world with new possibilities. I would talk to the horse and walk out into the fields with them talking of nature and proclaiming to them how wonderful they are. I felt a strong bond with these beautiful beings. Horse hold so much wonder about themselves and so much strength. They choose whom they like and if they don’t like you or something you are doing they will let you know it.

It’s a fantastic feeling connecting with a creature like a horse and forming a bond. You feel each other souls with no words needed to say those feelings aloud. When they know you’ve felt them, it pleases them so much. Simple things like knowing when they are tired, thirsty or hungry. Horse will gently caress there faces or body’s against yours if they like and appreciate you, as well as other things. I’m so thankful to that old barn for keeping the child in me alive. Thankful for letting me thrive in the majestic world of the horse.