by Terra Grygotis

This is an account of all of the horses who have touched my life, and little stories behind all of them. Some horses are mentioned multiple times, as their impacts on my life were just so large. To read this in a way that most makes sense, you can either read it in a linear fashion, or read all of one horse’s stories, and then continue on to the next. Whichever suits you best.

1. Seagrass.01

I’ll start this off with Seagrass. She was the first horse I ever rode. I was roughly five years old at the time, and my mother hoisted me up onto her back. Seagrass was fat at this time in her life, a lovely goldenrod coat, a black flowing mane and tail, and four black socks. My mother would lead me around the front yard of our old, white Victorian-style farmhouse, and I would smile the biggest smile. Once, I remember I had whispered to her to trot, and to my disdain, she actually started trotting. Being five years old, I slipped off her back, and Seagrass came to an abrupt halt, towering above me as I laid on the ground and cried.

 

1. Naleigh

Naleigh was the first pony I ever ‘owned’. Of course, I didn’t actually own her. I was seven years old, so any legally binding paperwork was in my mother’s name. Naleigh was a sun-bleached black, so it looked like she had dark chocolate spots across her body. Her mane was long and tangled, and her tail so long it brushed across the ground when she walked. I remember when I first got her, we bought her from my mother’s childhood friend, Heidi. Heidi had named her ‘Soda Pop’, and I remember not liking that much. I had wanted to name her ‘Nala’, after The Lion King, but after just learning about copyright and plagiarism, I had decided to make it my own, hence the name ‘Naleigh’. I never really rode Naleigh much, but sometimes my mother would put me on the ponies’ back and would lead me up and down the gravel driveway. We eventually had to move, and that was the last I ever saw of Naleigh.

 

III.    Sylvester

It had been a few years since I had ridden. I was now around ten years old, and we had moved to Virginia. I lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and my mother was trying to find summer camps to send me to while she was at work. We found a horse camp through ‘Freedom Aquatic and Fitness Center’. One of the horses there was named Sylvester, and he was the one I had been assigned to ride during the time. I remember not particularly liking this camp, as I wasn’t permitted how to learn how to steer by myself, and everyone else was younger than me. Sylvester, however, was most likely the horse that sent me down what has now been almost 10 years of serious riding. Sylvester was tall, probably around 16.2 hands high, a dark bay appaloosa, with white spotting from his rump down to his legs.

 

1. Lady.01

I was around 11 years old at this time, and my mother and I had moved to Manassas, Virginia to live with my Aunt Tracy and Uncle James. Once again, my mother had been looking for summer camps to send me to, and my Aunt had found one that looked particularly good. It was located at a farm called Sunny’s Corner, and for the low cost of three hundred dollars a week, I would have horse-time from seven in the morning until around six at night. It was here that I began to ride Lady. I rode her for my entire first week there. Lady was around 15.1 hands high, an off the track thoroughbred, and faster than I had been used to. By no means though, was she dangerous. It was on Lady that I had learned to walk and trot on my own without being led.

 

1. Rocket.01

They say everyone who rides has a heart horse or two. I believe there have been three in my life. Rocket, Zack, and Seagrass. After my first week at Sunny’s Corner, I remember begging my mom for another week of camp there. This week they had me rotate between Rocket and Lady. Rocket was tall, around 17 hands, a rich cherry bay color, with a small white stripe down his nose. I remember one time I had been riding Lady, she accidentally started cantering, I fell and cried, and immediately after the lesson I ran to Rocket’s stall to hug him. After my two weeks of camp, I began regular lessons at Sunny’s Corner, which led to Rocket and Lady becoming my two normal lesson horses. After about a month of riding regular weekly lessons, I did my first show with Rocket, which earned me three second place ribbons, and a reserve champion ribbon, which still hang on my wall to this day.

 

1. Balou

            It had been a year or two of riding, I had joined the IEA team at Sunny’s Corner, but never showed, so ended up quitting. I was ready to move up to a more advanced horse, much to my despair. Rocket had also been leased out to a woman named Lynn, so it would be a long time before I was able to ride him again. Balou was a 15.2 hand high American Paint, a chestnut and white overo pattern, and more sensitive than I was used to. Balou was extremely bouncy and hard to maintain a seat on. I remember my trainer, Bruce Leland, attempting to bribe me with five dollar bills to trot over jumps, to which I refused. It had been on the IEA team with Lady that I had fallen over a jump, and rode only flat for nearly 6 months.

 

VII.   Stevie

Sunny’s Corner had gotten a new horse, and I was around fourteen years old. I had been riding there with Bruce for quite some time, and had begun to get my confidence back. I was jumping cross rails quite regularly with Balou and Lady, so Bruce had decided to move me up again. Stevie was a sweetheart, and he became my sole lesson horse. He was 16.2 hands high, a chestnut Appendix Quarter Horse, and was incredibly lazy. I had been so used to riding horses like Balou and Lady, that it took me quite some time to get used to the extreme laziness that was Stevie.

 

VIII. Seagrass.02

            It was around this time that my Aunt Tracy and my Uncle James decided that they were moving to Arizona. They left Seagrass to my mother and I, and said we could ride and use her for anything, and they would continue to pay all of the bills. I began to work with Seagrass as regularly as I could. She had never done much with my Aunt, never even really cantered, so I started to work with her on the canter and over small jumps. Seagrass started to muscle out, and over time, would eventually become the horse I wanted her to be. After months, she would finally begin to ease gently into her canter rather than jump into it, and after some time, would learn to become excitable at the sight of a jump, or even at the sight of the ring.

 

1. Rocket/Lady.02

At the age of sixteen, the majority of my life was being taken away. Alright, so I suppose that’s a little dramatic. Sunny’s Corner was closing. I begged to ride Rocket one last time before his owner took him home to Kentucky, for me to never see again. I was allowed to ride him, and I remember thinking he had gotten so slow with his age. I finished with my ride, dismounted, and gave him the snuggest hug while sobbing into his chest. I eventually had to turn him out, and I did. That day, Lady had also been sold. The owner of Sunny’s Corner Farm, permitted me to ride her down to the farm that she had been sold to, along with the other horses that had been sold. I hopped on Lady bareback and began on the saddest trail ride I had ever been on. We eventually made it to the farm, my hand scratched up from stroking Lady’s neck and mane the whole way. I dismounted, gave the mare a hug, and turned her out into the field. This was also the last time I would ever see her.

 

1. Zack

Later that year, my trainer, Bruce Leland, found his own farm at a place called Fox Chase Farm, in Middleburg, Virginia. My mother and I moved out to a condo in Middleburg to follow him there. When I started to ride with him at that farm, I rode two horses, Zack and Jake. Zack was a chestnut Tennessee Walking Horse/Clydesdale cross, was 14.2 hands tall, and had a large white blaze down his face, with four white socks. Zack was stubborn, had bad behaviors, such as stopping mid canter and itching his foot, but I fell in love immediately. I rode him consistently, sometimes even 3 times a week. There’s so many stories I could tell about him, but I’ll save them all for another time. I’ll stick with a broader generalization of him. Zack got me to being such a confident rider, it got to the point that I was jumping four foot tall oxers and verticals, jumping full courses with him, and my favorite, one-stride gymnastics. No other horse will ever be able to match up to him.

 

1. Jake

Jake was a horse I rode for almost the same amount of time as Zack. He was a tall 17.1 hands, dark bay; nearly black, and had no white markings. He was a French-imported Selle Francais, with the registered name of Jean Beau de Rennes. With a sale sticker of 134,000 dollars, it made me anxious to ride him. I never liked him as much as Zack, as he didn’t have the flexibility and speed that the pony did. I did the same kind of jumps with him, tall four foot oxers, verticals, and courses. It always felt strange with him loping slowly up to the jumps, it never really felt that he would actually make it over the jumps.

 

XII. Seagrass.02

            Bruce had left again, and I was left to only riding Seagrass. This part will be relatively short. I had trained her up to a point where she was regularly jumping 2’6 and 3’0. I had been riding her in preparation for a cross country course. We had decided to attempt to jump some barrels, and she had jumped it perfectly three times. My mother asked me to go over it a fourth time, she went to jump it, and she refused. I flipped over her ears and slammed neck first into the ground on the other side. I don’t remember much after that, as I got a terribly bad concussion, and struggled to bring back my memories from even before then.