All through my growing up years, from the time I was very young, I always had a pet of some kind. Over the years I had more dogs than I can remember, cats, hamsters, chickens, ducks, a skunk, parakeets, squirrels, gerbils, guinea pigs, rabbits, turtles, a crow, goldfish and probably a few others that escape my memory right now.
I also had a horse — for about two or three days. The horse was a Shetland pony and it belonged to by cousin. My cousin was older, and bigger, than I was so my uncle got him a bigger horse — and he gave the pony to me. Even though we lived in the “city” of Maysville, we kept the horse in our back yard. The yard wasn’t huge, but it had a fence around it and was big enough for a horse.
Now a kid that is only about six years old and has their own horse is a pretty cool kid. That was me — six years old and I had a horse. What could be better?
Well, it turns out that from my perspective, a lot. My mother threw a fit — there was no way she was going to let me have a horse. You might think that she didn’t want a horse in the back yard tramping on the grass, or making a mess that had to be cleaned up regularly or making the backyard smell like a barnyard…. but no, my mother was afraid that a horse wasn’t safe for a little kid like me — apparently all sorts of bad things would happen, like falling off or getting trampled, or worse.
My dad did his best to go to bat for me, but after a few days, my mom convinced ( wore down) my dad and the horse went to live on a farm just outside Maysville.
Someone once said that a pony is a childhood dream and a horse is an adult treasure. I had that childhood dream…. at least for a little while — sigh.
— 30 —