My horse Patches (3)

Quite by accident, I discovered this amazing horse.  I thought he belonged to us and that my father owned him.  He was a light grey horse with darker grey splotches all over him, from which he derived his name Patches.  I fell in love with him immediately.  He was one of the most gentle horses I ever rode and went a long way to allaying my deep seated fear of riding.  Imagine my anger and disbelief when I returning home from boarding school one holiday only to discover that Patches no longer resided on our farm.

It happened like this.  My cousins from the next door farm came down one day to pay us a visit and lo and behold, who should be riding  Patches but my cousin.  I was flabbergasted!  "What are you doing on Patches" I asked her.  "Oh" she said " I liked him so much, I asked my father to buy him for me"  I was horrified!  In my book, one didn't do things like that.

It transpired that Patches belonged to one of our farm workers and therefore he could easily be approached in order to conclude a transaction.  For me, it felt like a double betrayal.  Firstly, that my uncle could buy the horse I had been riding for quite a long time for his daughter and secondly, that my father had not been able to see that that was the horse I was attached to, and therefore approach the farm worker himself in order to procure a sale.

Among other things I learnt that holiday, was that one, I couldn't always have the things I wanted, and secondly that not everyone had the same set of values or the same way of looking at life that I did.  That was a very hard and painful lesson for me.