How One Christmas Gift Changed My Life

As a young girl, I like millions of other young girls around the world, wanted a horse for Christmas. Of course the answer was always no until I was 6 years old. That year we were moving and my father said he expected to have more income so he promised me that I would have my horse by the time I was 12. Six more years was a long way off but now I had something to look forward to.

Needless to say when I was 12 there was no horse and no hope of one either. My father's work situation never panned out and we were always living in apartment buildings. I grew up and finally gave up on ever having a horse in my life.

As an adult I never dated much and my social life was mostly work oriented. After 4 years at on job I started to date a man that would become my husband. We got married and bought our first home. For a hobby I raised Chow Chow dogs. I was training and showing them.

Each Christmas my husband always seemed to buy me the most terrible gifts. Every year I would got back to the stores and exchange them. These were not inexpensive items but items bought by my husband that he thought I would cherish forever. Finally after 3 Christmases in a row he asked me the loaded question "what do your really want for Christmas?" Without hesitation I said, "a horse". He looked at me and said that we were both earning great pay and told me to look into it. I was in happy shock at that point. My dream my come true after all.

We lived in town so at first I did not know where to keep a horse. I went to the local pet/feed store and talked to one of the clerks there about horse ownership in the area. She happened to be a horse owner herself and I picked her brain for a good hour or more. She like the good majority of horse owners did not keep the horse on their own property but boarded them at a local horse boarding stable. The boarding stable would provide housing, food and watch over the horse for a monthly fee. I checked out many of the local boarding stables in the area and found out prices. I also remember seeing a wide range of facilities from backyard dumps to professional horse training facilities with horse vets on duty. At the time there was only a small difference in monthly boarding fees for the better boarding establishments so I went with one of those. I talked to the manager of the boarding stable and got paperwork written up that they would have a place for my to board my horse as soon as I found one.

Now to the happy task of finding my horse. My husband and I belonged to a local 4 wheel drive club and a fellow member's wife had a horse for sale. I went to take a look at the horse. I had some experience around horses growing up - even though my father had said no owning a horse he always seemed to manage to take me horseback riding. I also had become a book expert when it came to horses, I read everything about them. So when this woman showed me an ill mannered (it tried to kick her when she was putting it's saddle on it's back), young (2 year old) and barely trained gelding (fixed male horse) I had to say no.

My search continued. I found an ad in the newspaper for Arabian horses for sale. I had always loved the Arabian breed, at least the ones in the books and magazines I had. I called and made an appointment to look at them. This seller was a large Arabian breeding farm that had about 6 geldings for sale. Only 3 of them were trained to ride and they were just green broke. Green broke is a term used to define the amount of riding time a horse had experienced in it's lifetime. Green broke is about 60 days to a year of training under saddle. She had someone round up the 3 geldings that were trained. My eyes just about fell out of my head when she brought the first one out a chestnut gelding. The next one was a bay gelding. Both of them were beautiful. The last one was a dappled grey with a black mane and tail. I did not look at him that much I was in love with the others. She had all three out and held by helpers at that point. She then told me she would let each one loose in the arena for me to watch and choose from. Both the bay and the chestnut colored horses were wonderful but when it came time for the grey horse to show off - he was magnificent! He was the best moving and graceful horse of the group. I then set a time for the second visit at which time I would bring along my husband. A word to the wise here - never buy a horse on your first visit.

My next visit a few days later was for me to ride my grey horse. I husband unknown to me had invited a friend along from the 4 wheel drive club. I found out that the friend had invited himself along to offer his advice. It turned out that he use to trained racehorses along with his very famous father. I found out later who his father was. I rode my grey Arabian horse and my husband's friend asked how long I had been riding. I told him just the occasional ride on rental horses in the past. He then gave me the most wonderful complement I had ever heard. "You are the most natural rider I have ever seen" were his words. My new horse had the usual name of Ice.

That was the day in early December that I acquired my first horse, Ice the Arabian. The reason I say my first horse is the fact that 18 years later I now have 6 of them and live on our own little place in the country. Not only did that Christmas gift out shine all my other gifts but changed our lifestyle in the process.

Ice has since passed over the rainbow bridge and I will always have a special place in my heart for him. He taught me how to trail ride, team pen cattle and show horses. That little horse was the one that fulfilled my lifelong Christmas wish.