Horses (1)

A farm wouldn't be a farm without horses, and we had plenty in all shapes and sizes.  The very first time I "rode" a horse was when my big sister who was ten years old, thought that it was high time that I at the age of four should learn to ride, so she pushed me onto the back of Lucky my middle sister's horse and gave him a resounding slap on the rump.  He went from half asleep to a full gallop in two seconds flat, with me bobbing around and screaming my lungs out.

Down the dusty, rutted road we flew, then as quickly as he had set off, so did he just as quickly come to an abrupt halt in order to make a sharp left hand turn into the narrow gate leading down to the side of the old house.  Horses are creatures of habit, and so having turned into this gate a million times before, saw no reason not to do so again.

Not only did I learn to ride that day, I also learnt to fly, for fly I did, straight off the back of Lucky and into the waiting arms of my big sister.  I hate to think what would have happened had she not been there to catch me.  I recon I might very well not have been around today to tell the tale.  Needless to say that incident coloured the whole way I viewed horses from that day onward.