Where it All Began

Myself with my baby brother Henry
1959

My early years were formed along the dirt roads of Kansas.  That little farm gave my siblings and I a solid start.  We loved the farm, of course we knew no different, but country living was good to us. I was about 5 when my daddy came home from the sale one night and warned us of a surprise that he would bring home the following night!  I remember my older sister and brother and I waiting anxiously for him in the yard that next evening.  It was almost dark, the sun was just starting to go down, when daddy drove into the yard with his pick up,  the stock racks rattling with every bump. Through the gaps in the wooden racks, LO and Behold!! we could see not one, but TWO white and red paint horses! I was in love instantly, as were my sister and brother.  You see, I was born a cowgirl.  Proof you will see from pictures of me as a youngster.  Not a one will you find that I am not sporting my cowboy boots 'neath my little short skirt. I never grew out of it either, cowboy hats, belt buckles, wranglers, and boots. 

Myself and my baby sister Angelia
1960

Well, there was a little problem we had with these horses.  They weren't broke.  But Daddy was pretty sure he could do it.  His brother, CW Pierce aka Uncle Cliff,  was one of the best horse trainers around, and with a little help he'd have us riding these horses in no time.  Mom and Dad worked with them.  They got them to the point that a person could sit on them for a bit.  Then one night while momma was in the barn milking, my brother, Jeff, was sitting on one of them and Charline and I were petting and loving on it, and the thing spooked, reared up, knocked Jeff off and come down and kicked Charline in the eye.  Oh she had a shiner let me tell you.  So the horses got put out to pasture and we were to stay away from them,  and that was pretty much the end of that.  We moved to town a couple of years after that, meanwhile the buckinest thing we got to ride was a hog now and then. After we moved to town Daddy would still bribe us to be good or to go to bed with the promise of a pony.  I never got one, but I dreamed of it.  Ya see, I thought back then I was going to be a writer, and I wrote short stories to beat the band and I don't think one of them didn't include a lonely girl and her pony exploring the world together.  I had friends that had them, and I would take every opportunity to jump up on any  one that came near.  When I was a sophomore in high school, I met my first husband, and lucky for me, his family had a horse, and no one ever rode her.  Well, no one til me.  Now and then Jack would jump on, but it wasn't a priority as he was a motorcyle man. I loved taking Ginger for rides.  We'd run in the pasture with the cows, or sometimes Jack would ride her into town and we'd go from there. I'd ride just as fast as we could go one mile and turn around and go as fast as I could the next.  I loved to go fast!  I'll say I was lucky, because I was never thrown off one. 

Ginger would spook when she had to go over a railroad track, but somehow we always got through it. I guess I just knew she would spook, and I watched for it, and we got through it together. One time we were riding up by the city pool, and something scared her.  I still don't know what it was, but she went to bucking and a dancin and Jack slid off her back end, and I just hung on tight and went for a ride with him running along behind me yelling, " Get off of her! Get off of her!"  Well, first of all Ginger was a good sized horse.  No way could I get off of her without getting hurt somehow while she was a jumping and a kickin! and a runnin as fast as she could go. Seemed to me my best option was to hang on and stay on! So I rode her through it laughing my ass off at Jack's jumping up and down yellin'.  Ah yeah Ginger, she was a good horse.  Jack's dad sold her not too long after that, but I had a good year or so with her.

After Jack and I got married, and had our babies, we moved to Colorado.  We would put the cowboy boots on the little boys, get a sitter for Chrisinthia, and go to the mountains and rent horses to ride on the mountain trails. Stevan was barely 2.  His cowboy boots were too big, and every now and then one would fall off and Jack would have to dismount and pick up his boot. He got down off his horse, picked up the boot and turned around just in time to see his horse take off on a dead run! That's the last time I remember Jack riding a horse!  LOL

Well then, life happens.  I never was in position to own a horse, but we rented them now and then, the kids and I, and I saw to it that my daughter got to have a few riding lessons when she wanted to learn, and both of the boys participated in rodeo in high school.  So, I retired from my job in Oregon in 2000, and married the next prince charming that comes along and after a short stay in Washington State, we left it all and moved back to Kansas.  It didn't take me long after we got here to start worrying my husband about getting a horse.  I started looking, I was going to have one that's all there was to it. I never stopped talking about it. One Sunday afternoon, my little brother and his wife stop for a visit and I start in about finding me a horse.  Henry laughed and he said he had two of them he'd give to me.  Well then I'd need a saddle and all the tack and I'm a poor girl with not money.  He said he had everything I needed except the desire to ride.  I said I'd take them.  My husband said I wouldn't.  Henry and Kim left laughing all the way to the truck, and I heard him say " He's not going to let her have them!"

The next weekend, I talked my nephew into finding me a stock trailer to borrow, and we made tracks to my brother's and brought back my first two horses!  Dixie and Gracie. My mom had a little bit of ground, and she said I could keep them there.  Now, I had no clue as to what I was getting into.  I couldn't wait to get them saddled up and take them for a ride.  Hell,  couldn't even put a saddle or a bridle on the dang thing. And did I forget to mention that these horses hadn't even been riden in 2 maybe 3 years.  Mom helped saddle Dixie up and get her ready to go.  I was just going to take her for a little ride, and leave Gracie tied to a post until I got back.  So, we are about 6 blocks away from the lot, on mainstreet in downtown Narka, Kansas, and I get off my horse to go show my husban  "MY NEW HORSE" that he said I couldn't have, when behind me I hear this horse let out a war whoop that nearly scared me to everlasting life! I whirled around and what do I see but GRACIE running towards me full speed down the gravel road dragging and tripping over her lead rope!  Who woulda thought! And so begins my journey to horse ownership.