A Series of Fortunate Rides-- A Beginning: My Horseback Riding Tales

The joys of loving an extremely pricey sport.... You may or may not know that I am... fatally in love with horses. Ever since I started riding, I have been totally caught up with the sport, unable to let it go, even when it takes so much money out of my pocket. There's something about my heart and horses that just... clicks, I guess. For the longest time, my mother and my father have been trying to get me to stop being obsessed with horses. And to no avail. Believe me, I've tried. Once horse crazy, always horse crazy.

I guess I decided I owed all of you, dear readers, an explanation on how my whole horse thing started. Anyways, I was also kind of feeling like I was getting unoriginal with my book reviews. So.... Here it is: my history of horseback riding.

I wasn't born on a horse. Actually, quite the opposite-- I didn't know that I could horseback ride until the age of... I don't know.... A few years ago. During my younger years, I had absolutely no clue how horses would put as big an impact on me as they do now. Little did I know how much I would get to love these beautiful, faithful, and hardworking creatures.

It all started one day in Korea. I was on Vacation to Jeju Island ( bonus points to anyone who knows where that is! :D ) and my parents brought me to a ranch. Of course, I was like 'Huh? What am I doing here?'  But I went in, following my parents, and interested to see what I would do at a place with.... horses?! That was the very first time that I got on a real live horse, and for an hour, and I was absolutely in love. Already. I begged my mother to let me ride one more time in Vancouver. She agreed, and promised.

If it's one thing about my mom, it's that she keeps her promises. It was the summer after that I got to have my very first riding lesson at a stable in Langley. However, that place teaches in Korean, which got a bit difficult to understand at times. Anyhow, the horse I rode (I still remember her name) was an Arabian mare by the name of Matilda. She was absolutely adorable, and even though I only rode her once for an hour, I got pretty attached to her. Apparently I had a huge Totoro smile on my face during the whole riding lesson, and my mother looked kindly on me. After a few days of begging, I managed to convince my mother to let me ride again. However, due to the distance from Langley to my home, we decided that we would have to find somewhere else to ride.

For a while, I went around just testing out places to ride, from here and there. My weekends were pretty much devoted to trying to find a good stable where a.) the accommodations were good for the horses and b.) the teachers seemed very devoted. For a month, that dragged on. Finally, jackpot! I found my new riding stable.

Mind you , it was still a bit of a drive away from my home, but I really didn't care at that point-- it was perfect. The horses were gorgeous, the teacher strict but very enthusiastic and friendly, and there were lots of kids my age. I was so excited. My very first lesson was with a chestnut horse, Chester. He's the sweetest thing ever, I swear. He's the perfect school horse, calm, okay in pretty much everything, and gentle. He rarely complains, and he's a true sweetheart. After my private lesson, I decided that that was it. I was going to stay at this stable.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*End of Part One*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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