Passengers

When I was a teenager, sharing lesson horses, I vowed that when I got my own horse, no one else would ride it for at least six months. I wanted to buy a horse all on my own, without my parents’ help, so that I wouldn’t have to share it with my sisters.

Well, ten years later I feel a little less selfish and have realized that it’s entirely different when you have the choice to share or not. So when my best friend came to visit, Ransom took his first passenger for a ride after only four months of ownership. After I helped her mount up, my normally responsive gelding stood like a rock while she tried to get him to go. I like to think that he didn’t want to leave me, but more likely than not, he was thinking, “There’s a hesitant stranger on my back. What do I do?” I had to lead him to start him walking, and he finally made a few uncertain laps around the arena.

Just a few weeks later, I had my five year-old cousin out for her first ride. Ransom practically slept as I led her around on a lead line, dragging his feet in the sand and standing with his eyes half closed. I heard later that my young convert spent the next few days riding her bike around with rope reins and calling it Ransom.

My sisters will be home from college for Christmas soon, and I can’t wait for them to meet Ransom. It’s been fun to share the horse I love with the people I love. And it doesn’t make him any less mine.