Remember that summer job??

cnp55
Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:58:55 +0000

I rode horses.

My uncle – an old crusty bachelor New England farmer-horseman – had a boarding and sales stable. In the summer, I’d go down in the morning. He kept a horse for me to ride and show that was “mine”. After I rode her for an hour or so, he’d have five more greenies waiting for me. Quick brush off, toss on my saddle and out to the ring. I’d do a walk/trot/canter warm up and then he’d come out for a short jumping school, we’d get what we wanted from the horse, then I’d do a mile trail walk, and come back to the barn to do the next one. Maybe 40-45 minutes per horse. He paid me $1 per horse, not including the one that was “mine.”

(Of course "my"horse wasn’t for sale – everything else was. I was able to show and compete with “my” horse … the greenies I rode often sold before they were ready to show. And lots of the greenies weren’t a real fit for me – I was very tall and lightweight and very leggy, and those summers we were doing a lot of large ponies, and small, just over pony-size horses. Some of those ponies I could touch my feet under the belly!)

I also helped out in the barn with feeding and sweeping. Not stalls. And I did tack cleaning. Lots of tack cleaning. I also helped with the vet and the blacksmith when they visited, and showed the sale horses to customers.