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Adventures on Horseback: Cherished Dreams Sometimes Come True

Dr. (Ms.) Michael S. Whitt

    Since Amanda Rosaleigh Blake could remember, she and her close friend and neighbor, Carolyn Howells, wanted horses. The dream began in their preschool days when every so often a high school girl, who lived close, took them on short rides with her in control of the reins. It was not thrilling, although it was better than nothing. It did not come close to their fantasies. These involved them on their horses galloping across a field with their hair flying in the wind.
    One day this girl’s horse, a Palomino named Missy, was grazing in a field across from the girl’s house and a block from the little girls’ houses. The girls decided to take the horse, hoping to have a horse adventure. They untied and led Missy away with a rope attached to her halter. They took her down 4^th, a dirt road adjacent to the field, and led her down to 3^rd Street via Palm Avenue, both dirt roads. After they crossed 3^rd Street they went into a citrus orchard Carolyn’s parents owned. Another neighbor, Jen, was with them. She cared nothing for horses, but loved making trouble.

    Carolyn’s grandmother lived down in the grove from Carolyn’s house in a home built by her late husband, Percy Rogers. Granny Rodgers seemed okay with the situation, but soon Jen’s mother appeared. She was steaming mad. She scolded them soundly for stealing the horse. She told them they would take Missy back to Faith’s house and apologize for taking her horse, which they did.
    They had no more experiences with horses until Amanda was in the 6^th and Carolyn was in the 7^th grade. Carolyn’s science teacher and the assistant football coach, Allen Locke, drove some pre and young teens on Saturday to the Circle F Dude Ranch in Lake Wales, a small city 15 miles north of Frostproof, the village where the girls were born and lived. They rode here for nearly two years.
     For $4.50 they were provided with two long rides led by Allen, a delicious lunch, an arts and crafts session, and transportation to and from the ranch. They had lots of adventures, some that were fun and others that were a bit painful. Amanda’s most dramatic experience happened when the horse in front of her stepped on a log inhabited by a bee hive. When the horse lifted its foot off the log a swarm of bees come toward her and her horse.
    When the horse felt the stings, it began to buck attempting to escape them. When he bucked Amanda fell off, a good thing. On the ground she had two hands free to kill many of the bees on her clothes and skin. She was bitten at least 30+ times, nothing compared to the poor horse, but painful.
    In late April on Carolyn 14^th birthday, her parents gave her a Tennessee walking horse. Amanda was jealous, envious, and miserable. Her parents decided it was time to get her a horse as she would be 13 in May, though it was a bit of a financial strain. The Blake’s went horse shopping. After looking at two relatively broken down nags, they hit “pay dirt.” They found a pretty mare who was half Morgan and half Thoroughbred. The former was bred for riding; the latter for racing. Beauty, as Amanda named her, had smooth gaits except for her trot. She was also spirited and loved to gallop and run.
    Beauty’s ribs showed at first. She had a cute foal which was part of the deal. Amanda wondered if the man from whom they bought her did not feed her all she needed during her pregnancy. In no time she filled out and was truly beautiful. She had a dark reddish brown hue which glimmered in the sun.
    Amanda’s brother, Justin, claimed the foal that he named Shamrock. The little horse was perfect for him. He was four and half year younger than Amanda. Shamrock was a small, young male foal or colt. Foal is a general term for any young horse. Filly is the term for a female foal. The colt was a palomino color. His father was a Shetland pony. He was a small horse, but he was not as short as a Shetland. Shamrock inherited Beauty’s small bone structure rather than his father’s stocky build. Shamrock needed to be a little older before anyone should ride him. The first time Justin rode Shamrock, he did not protest, much less buck. He was tamed and part of the community by then. They were able to buy both horses and all the riding and maintenance equipment for $100. This was a deal even in 1957.
    Carolyn and Amanda rode almost daily during the years they had their horses. Carolyn’s horse was a little bit taller and stockier than Beauty. Lady, the name Carolyn gave her horse compared to the one Amanda selected, told much about the differences between the girls. Carolyn was more concerned with following the respectable social conventions of a “lady,” than she was with beauty or adventures. Amanda hated Carolyn’s horse’s name, and could have cared less about respectability. She was into beauty and adventure, both in nature and art.
    Amanda was also not much impressed by Lady’s color. She was a lighter brown than Beauty, and had none of the red hues that made Beauty’s coat exquisitely beautiful. Amanda was quite taken with Lady’s gaits. Tennessee walkers had two walking gaits, slow and fast. They went from the fast walk into a canter. That was a great comfort. Other horses trotted. That meant the rider had to post. This involved standing on the rough, bouncy part of the trot and sitting down in between. One had to do this over and over until the horse broke into a canter or settled into a walk. Posting looked stupid from the uninformed outsider’s view. It was embarrassing to have to do it in front of them. Amanda sometimes had to post while crossing the foot ball field when the players were practicing on the other end. She could have walked but she was usually in a
    hurry to meet Carolyn. The players thought it was funny until a couple of them who had grown up with horses explained to the rest it was a health measure. After she heard about their ignorant laughter, a few times she rapidly went into a canter at the field and often got up to a gallop before stopping suddenly a few feet from the players. Their mouths were gapping open at these times.
    During fall school days in Amanda’s 9^th and 10^th grades, they rode because of Amanda, after cheerleading practice. In the winter of the same two years Carolyn and Amanda had basketball practice. They rode after it was over sticking to the dirt roads south of their houses from 3^rd through 8^th Streets. Since their horses were not shod, they could not be ridden on paved roads much. Their hoofs would crack. There were many orchards, fields, and three miles of lake property to ride on. The latter was a few seconds ride from their houses. The lake was a beautiful spring-fed body of water with white sandy beaches, which extended out until they dropped off to heights over the tallest persons’ heads.
    All of these places were good for fast riding. Carolyn did not like to ride fast often. Amanda sometimes went riding alone to ride faster than a canter. Carolyn was silly about this. She was scared to death they were going to do harm to the horses by overheating them. Anyone who knew anything about horses knew when to stop the fast stuff. That is when the horse starts to get covered with a white lather. Otherwise, fast riding is fine, and the horses enjoy a run or gallop from time to time.
    Frostproof is 50 miles south of Orlando. The community was classified as a village as it was at the upper limit of that community type (2500). Over weekends and vacations, they made trips outside the village limits. On Saturdays they often rode to Babson Park, a village smaller than Frostproof, 7 miles north. They rode through the groves, over fields, and on the dirt roads that extended northward. At Babson Park, they went to the only restaurant for a hamburger. The restaurant, a filling station, and a grocery store were the only businesses in Babson Park. It was the home of Webber College, whose mission was to teach dumb rich girls how to manage their inheritances.
    Years later Amanda could testify that Carolyn’s Webber classmates she introduced her to, were talking about having trouble mastering the eights and nines in the multiplication tables. After taking college algebra, trigonometry, and introductory calculus at the University of Florida, Amanda was shocked that academic standards were that low in any institution of higher learning. Where did the girls go to high school?
    For that matter the tables are learned in grade school; where did they go to primary school? Amanda was clueless as to why Carolyn was going to this crib joint. She failed to make a 2.0 at Stetson University the first semester. After making a 1.6 she dropped out, and graduated from Ocala Junior College in two years. When she attended Webber, Amanda guessed she did not have anything else to do. Carolyn was not dumb, but she was undisciplined. Finally after graduating from Webber, she spent twelve months at computer school after which she was hired as a programmer. Amanda felt her other post-secondary education was a waste of time and money. No problem, her parents could afford to throw it away. Granddad Rodgers, a land hungry Irish immigrant, left them many acres of citrus groves. In the end Carolyn was a spoiled rich girl, and she eventually paid dearly for it; that, however is the subject of another story.
    One Saturday after they ate, the girls rode back through an orchard which had some rain gage tubes fastened on stakes. They were curious and rode up to get a closer look. On Monday, the Blake’s received a call from a Mr. Greenly, who worked for the fat cat who owned the grove the rain gages were in. Amanda could tell the man on the phone was accusing Carolyn and her of doing something to those gages. She gave her mother a quick summary of what actually happened. She believed Amanda and politely gave the man a piece of her mind.
    She said, “Look Mr. Greenly, neither my daughter nor Carolyn did anything to your rain gages. They rode closer to look at them. That is all. Frankly, they are plenty smart. If they had wanted to do anything to your gages, they would have left their horses far away, walked to the gages, and worked whatever mischief was worked.” We did not hear from this presumptuous jerk again.
    The summer before Amanda began the 9^th grade, someone gave her an English saddle. She and Carolyn usually rode Western style. Amanda’s English saddle’s girth had only one string; the rest had broken. Amanda needed only to get some string from the feed or hardware store, but she kept putting it off. It held for a long time, but nothing lasts for ever.
    One evening when Amanda ate supper, she left Beauty grazing in the yard. When she finished she went outside and mounted her. The two headed down the backyard hill. The strand broke and off went Amanda on the saddle. She landed on her left wrist and fractured it. What a deserved, but hateful fate. School started tomorrow.
    Her parents and Carolyn took her to the Lake Wales Hospital. The nature of the fracture required a strange looking caste which bent over at the wrist. She received her share of teasing about being “bucked off” her horse. She did not bother to explain. She was thankful it would be healed before it was time for the girls to go out for basketball.

    A July afternoon that summer, the girls decided to ride around Ready Lake a ways and then head south over dirt roads, orchards and fields to a beautiful creek with Hyacinths blooming in it. When they came back to Ready Blvd, a storm was brewing. The wind picked up, lightening sparks could be seen, and thunder was roaring in the distance. They reached the place where they went their separate ways to their horse pens, which were ½ mile from each other. Carolyn’s was in the grove where her house was located. Amanda’s was in her dad’s shop. He owned several acres of land in addition to that which the shop building was on. The building housed his electric saws and other sensitive construction equipment, as well as horse food, riding equipment, and maintenance items.
    When Amanda turned toward the shop, she and Beauty had to go through a grove. As they entered it, a loud clap of thunder following a huge lightening flash scared Beauty and she began galloping. Amanda was torn between slowing her down and letting her gallop to get to the shop quickly. That lightening was close. She feared they might be struck, but she was afraid of the low growing limbs of citrus trees. She put her head and chest on Beauty’s neck hoping she would not be knocked off by a limb.
    Amanda did not allow her to go into a full run, although Beauty wanted it. A curb chain under her chin stopped that. After what seemed an eternity, they emerged from the grove. The violence of the storm had subsided. Beauty had calmed down. The shop was three blocks away. Amanda wondered if Beauty was as glad as she was to be home. Her clothes were soaked, but by now the sun was beating down and the wet felt good.
    Amanda removed Beauty’s saddle and bridle, rubbed her down, with her brush, and combed her mane and tail. She gave her some oats and sweet feed. By then Pop, Amanda’s granddad, was waiting for her in his 51 Oldsmobile. Carolyn had alerted him to pick her up. She needed to take care of Lady. Amanda could not wait to compare notes on her part of the adventure! When she did, Carolyn told her the storm had not gotten to their houses until she was home. Amanda smiled at her. She was thinking, oh well, it is all probably just as well. She decided not to tell Carolyn the details of her adventure. She feared this would dilute the experience and bring her down. For several reasons the adventure had made her high as a kite. The rain, wind, speed, possible dangers, suspense, and that it ended well were all factors. This was one of Amanda’s happiest days with her well loved horse.
    The fact the Beauty was deeply loved made the day Amanda sold her nearly three years later the saddest, although she felt good about it. She was near the end of the 11^th grade. Concerns about college, school talent contests, editing the yearbook, a more intense interest in boys, although she had been dating since the latter part of the 8^th grade, and other new interests began to interfere with riding Beauty as much as she needed. The man who bought her needed a horse in order to ride with his youngest daughter. He had leased several acres for Beauty to run on.
    The day the Barbers came to get Beauty, Amanda retired to her walk-in closet. She did not want her parents to see her weep about this. However, her father was quite sensitive to her feelings. Before she knew it he was in the hall outside of her bedroom.
    He called softly, “Amanda, honey, we don’t have to sell Beauty if you don’t want to.”
    “It’s okay Dad. It’s best for everyone involved, especially Beauty. Her welfare is what’s important.”
    “Okay,” her dad said. “We just don’t want you to be unhappy about it.”
    Amanda was, but she was soon over it. She was deeply thankful for the time she had riding and caring for her beloved Beauty. She knew it had matured and improved her in a many ways. It made her posture better. It tested her courage and strength and much more. An amazing part of the situation was Beauty lived to be 38 years old, a ripe old age for a horse. This was a high compliment for Amanda, the Barbers, and her dad regarding all of their care and love of Beauty. The latter’s soft heart led him to give her an extra bit of food when he went by his shop.

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