She posted this today
Long lost friend found
As a small child I was exposed to horses, mostly because I drove my parents to their wits end begging for a pony. They finally got me that pony. Thunder decided that he could and would escape from our fence anytime he so desired, so the decision was made to move him to a nearby boarding barn where some friends of ours had there new Paso mare in training.
This barn was located in the Homestead area, the Redlands to be exact, and was called Blue Ribbon Stables.
At this time I was about 7 years old, much as I loved that pony I really couldn’t ride him, he was way too quick for me. Luckily for me there was a little girl at the barn (her parents owned the place) that had a HUGE mare named Suds. Suds was awesome, a draft lipizanner cross with a temperament to die for. This little girl was quit the daredevil and in no time she taught me how to climb the arena rail and take a flying leap to get on Suds, now she had to be more careful as she was jumping on the horse in front of me. She also taught me how to shimmy up Suds leg by using her knees and mane, we were rather monkey like and limber in those days. Our other favorite way to mount was to put a handful of hay down, when Suds dropped her head to eat it I would sit behind her ears, when she lifted her head I would slide onto her back and scootch back, then my little friend would repeat the process and wind up in front and away we would go.
Right next to the barn was about an acre field of Rubber Trees, at that time they were about 4 feet tall, so our parents could sit on the bench at the front of the arena and chat, while we rode around the Rubber Plants, they could keep an eye on us if anything went wrong. We rode for what seemed like hours. Another real treat was that the teenage girls would ride the hound out of their horses and then pull the saddles off and let us walk them cool. I’ll never forget how special I felt getting a leg up on the “big” girls horses.
We were such good friends in those days.
About a year later and my friends Dad died, it wasn’t too long before her Mom gave up the farm and they moved on. I have always remembered my first horse crazy friend and her horse Suds. Unfortunately I never heard from my friend again.
Today I got an email from an APF forum member about something totally unrelated. I congratulated this person on their new horse and asked about her former favorite ride. When she responded she included a link to her website so I could see more photo’s of all her horses. As I was reading the information I saw one little sentence, that said: My parents brought over some of the first few Paso Fino horses in the 1960's when I was a child. My father died and my mom sold them. That simple sentence struck a chord with me.
You see Blue Ribbon Stables at that time was the hot spot in south Florida for the Paso horse. That is where I too, had my introduction to the Paso Fino. I emailed this person and asked her maiden name. At this point I just KNEW. I got a fast response, and oh my. This person that I have always felt an affinity to for various reasons is actually my little buddy form 40+ years ago. Now understand, we have known each other on this forum for several years, but never knew we were buddies as little kids. Of course we shot many emails back and forth today. We both got a little teary as well as getting those weird chills when something like this falls into place just out of the blue. We are both scrounging for photo’s of us together, but apparently our parents didn’t think we were all that cute because neither of us has had any luck finding photo’s of us together.
Here is where it gets kind of eerie: My Dad died about one year after hers, so we were both very little to suffer a loss so tragic. We both accidentally got away from the Paso Fino, but being true horse crazy girls we did get into another breed (the same breed for us both). We were both fairly successful showing this other breed (I wonder if we ever competed against each other). Then as adults we both went back to the horses of our childhood, the Paso Fino. We both have several now and both enjoy trail riding. We still haven’t given up on our “other” favorite breed though and most likely never will.
I guess all this time I felt an affinity for this person because we have so much in common, even before we realized we had re-found an old friend.
Just think, all this because this forum. Today has been a good day!
Anyone want to take a guess at who my very first horse crazy girlfriend was????
