Wednesday, January 4, 2012

pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends


Pretty, pretty geldings...and mares that I call friends. 

Last night I finished reading my grandmother's diary from 1959. She was 39 years old.  This was the fourth and final one (1955, 1956, 1957, and 1959 - she didn't keep one in '58) and one underlying theme is that my grandmother was obsessed with horses.  I never really knew this about her. Of course, I knew she loved our horses. She fed them and watered them for us and gave them carrots and apples daily. But her horse routines that I witnessed seemed rather perfunctory. She loved animals so she had to care for animals which meant a daily "job" that she did willingly and punctually, but I didn't get that she did it happily. Somewhere in time she seemed to have lost the joy that her diaries convey.

My family boarded their horses in those days and my mom was in middle school. Therefore, my grandmother didn't actually have to go to the barn until after my mom was home from school, yet entry after entry tells of her cleaning the house quickly in the morning and then going to the barn to clean the horses and sometimes even ride. My grandmother was a beginning rider her entire life, never fully conquering her fear, but I can see when there are long stretches of consecutive grooming days, that she would feel close to the horses and gain confidence enough to ride, first for 10 minutes, then 20, then for a half hour.  Weather or activities would stop the streak and then she was back to just grooming. 

Her words tell of an insistence, an excitement that I share now in my life and I never knew she had. 

Recently, I have been savoring this feeling. The silly, giddy, pure joy of horses. I don't know what to compare it to except maybe the adrenaline of a first crush. I adore cleaning tack now - something I loathed when I showed. It was a chore then, like an unrelated task that my teenage mind couldn't see as important. Now, it is a connection with them, the regal ones. I lay my tack proudly across our dining room table and put on music and assemble my saddle soap and neatsfoot oil and just wallow in the smell of horse and leather. I pray and say thank you to the poor animals (cows?) who gave their skin for my saddle and reins, purchased 30 years ago and kept all these years so as not to diminish their sacrifice.  

I felt like I had a big secret when we drove down to Florida and I could smell my tack in the back of the van. The smell that meant the promise of horses when we arrived. I will feel that same surge on the way home when I smell Max's horsey smell on my tack every time we open the van tailgate. I will wonder how I can wait 1000 miles to see my three boys.

I empty my pockets at night and giggle when I discover, mixed in with the coins and hair ties, carrot stubs and horse treat crumbs.

I proudly go to the grocery store and clomp through the aisles in my wellies with the telltale signs of bareback riding on my jeans - something I would have died of embarrassment about as a kid. I don't know if my grandmother would have gone that far, but I do know that she never minded looking "horsey" in the horse sneeze on her sweater sense, not in the crisp, refined, "dress to the nines" hunt clothes sense. 

I hope I never lose this thrill, the giddy "I've got a secret" feeling of being a horse owner, a rider. I know that farm chores sometimes rob me of it. Don't get me wrong, I love cleaning stalls and feeding because it is for them, my sweetie pies. It is the farm management - planning, worrying, organizing, ordering, that becomes a bit off topic to the joy for me. Leasing this year in Florida helped me revisit the bliss without the management responsibilities. Is that what happened to my grandmother?  My grandparents moved the horses and themselves to our farm around 1960 and maybe some of the "horse" part was buried under all the "farm" part of my grandmother's days. I don't know. She is gone now and I can't ask, but I am going to strive this year to keep her horse joy in the fore of my mind. 

8 comments:

  1. What a great heritage to learn about. I wish I could have an inside look into my grandparents youth. What a lovely tribute to your grandmothet also. Beautiful post!

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  2. How cool to be able to literally read your Grandmother's thoughts and that you all share the love of horses!! Generational bliss :)
    I too, stomp through grocery stores, etc run my errands in my 'stinky' horse pants with my green muck boots and my coat that is FILLED with horse beet pulped kisses, proudly.

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  3. Your grandmother's diary sounds very special. What a treat for you to read about her love of horses too.

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  4. A unique opportunity, and I get it. This was a great post.

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  5. As they say around here... you came by it honest. ;)

    I tend to trail hay around. In my hat or hair even - always on my clothes somewhere.

    Recently I had new tires put on my truck. While I paid the bill, the darling little mechanic boy asked if I had horses. I answered yes thinking, oh no, my truck must smell, or worse I smell! He said he figured I must with all the hay in it... I don't even notice anymore. ;) Great post!

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  6. What a special connection you have to your grandmother through her diaries. It's something to cherish.

    I'm afraid I'm a mess when I'm clomping through stores and my car is a little bit of a mess between carrots, treats and hay, I won't even mention the twine. I'm convinced it breeds.

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  7. Reading diaries is always really interesting but reading one that has such a direct connection to you must really be exciting. In a way, it;s a little piece of you you are reading about. Actually, a BIG piece of you given what she is writing about. Do you believe that we pass on passions through our blood? How can that be? There must be something truly genetic and physical about our connection to these guys! It is all very dreamy, isn't it?

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  8. Juliette, Oh, that is so wonderful to have the diaries of your grandmother and her years of horse love. So very special. It gives you a window into her heart, even if in later years it was tempered by other, understandable concerns like the farm operations.

    I, too, sometimes think of how thrilling it is to have a horse, and I, too, am still giddy about it. For me, it is an unparalled joy, an unimaginable wonder, to be able to know and bond with a wonderful horse like Buckshot. I cannot quite understand those who don't feel likewise. I don't mention it lest it offends someone. But for me, in my heart, the horse is an awesome creature, and I am so blessed to have and love one of my own. I love reading your posts.

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