Life of Sidney

I originally started writing only as a past time, I found through school I was quite good at writing fiction and I have since branched out my avenues to different genres and other pieces of literature such as magazines, news pieces and other miscellaneous stories. My true passion, however, is horses. I could talk to you all day till I was blue in the face about them. That's sort of what I plan to do now. My life growing up in Michigan was all around uneventful. At four years old I knew just what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be. I begged my parents to get me a horse. We lived on ten acres and down a dead and dirt road no less. We were more than capable of owning animals besides dogs. My dad always told me that we didn't have the room for a horse. At six years old I looked up our county codes and proved him wrong. You needed five acres for the first horse and then an acre per additional. I printed off these codes and made a power point on the benefits of the equestrian lifestyle such as the usefulness of fertilizer in the garden they had every year as well as the fact I'd be too busy caring for my horse instead of the one thing that every dad dreads. Boys. As a birthday present for my 7th or 8th birthday a family friend paid my dues to be in 4-H. I was over the moon. Best birthday present ever as I was finally able to get involved with more animals than just my dogs. I started showing rabbits my first year and placed fairly well that year, my next year I was handling rabbits and in market club, market club was a side benefit of 4-H, basically kids raised a project animal (or animals) and sold them at the end of the year. The club would keep a profit and the rest the kid could do what they wanted with it. My third year in 4-H I got to start learning how to work with and show horses, that year I got my first taste of "owning" my own horse, a friend of my 4-H leaders lent me a couple of his horses for me to use for the summer and I could show the one at fair that year. One time when I was practicing with this particular horse, his name was Grampy, his owner nearly threw me over the saddle and had to pull me back into the saddle seat by my belt loop! He didn't realize I was only ninety pounds soaking wet. Unfortunatley, I didn't place in showmanship or in the western pleasure classes at all that year. The speed classes however, is where I found myself. We placed first overall and got some good pay outs. The next year my friend's dad cornered me in Kmart and asked me a question I never thought I'd hear. "Do you want a horse" I was so shocked I couldn't speak. When I finally got my marbles back in line the first words out of my mouth were "Did you ask my parents" He laughed so hard I thought he was going to keel over right there. He said of course he asked my parents first and that if I wanted her I could have her. Free. I obviously accepted very quickly. Her name was Sidney, she was a brown and black Morgan Paint cross. She hadn't been touched in a few years other than to be moved from one pasture to the other. So what I was getting into I wasn't sure. My bond with her was one I will never forget. Once spring came I started working with her. My uncle bought me my first saddle and I spent several days and hours getting her used to the saddle pad, saddle, and bridle. I was basically starting from scratch with her. I finally decided to get on her one day bareback with just a halter and a lead rope for reins. Not my brightest idea. We were doing great until she decided to buck and I went straight into the hay bale that was in her pasture. It cushioned my fall luckily. When both my mom and the guy who gave her to me was home was my first official ride on her. Gary, her previous owner, told me to ride her acrossed the pasture to the telephone pole that was in her pasture and then trot her back. Even worse idea. When a horse is urged to go faster in the direction they want to go, typically they will get there as quickly as possible. She started bucking halfway across this path and I was quickly losing my seat, we reached the end of the path and I tried to turn her before we hit the electric fence. Unfortunatley turning wasn't in the plans. She hit the electric fence and spun around, when she did it shocked both me and her and of course it hurt, so I screamed. Gary now calls me scream. Any who, after that it took a long time before Sid would trot next to me let alone run with me on her again. However, when I finally showed her it was okay we did fairly well at fair and always cleaned house in the speed events. After I aged out of 4-H (aging out means I turned over the age of 18) I bred Sid to a gorgeous Gypsy Vanner stallion named Feathered Gold Donnovan who I had the pleasure of working with during his stay at my parents. Sid then gave birth 11 months later to a gorgeous black and white filly who I named Jade. To make a long story slightly shorter I traded Jade for a horse for my husband who passed away not long after I did so. I moved Sid back to Spruce from Gaylord where I had moved to and unfortunatley lost her a few months later to a severe infection. She is still the reason I write, she helped me through so many things growing up. It's been two years now that she passed away. I am hoping I'll be able to save up and get back into horses and be able to follow my original dream of owning, showing, and breeding champion horses. That's what inspires me.