Throwback Post: The Annual Christmas Eve Day Ride

Happy Christmas Eve! Enjoy this throwback post about one of my favorite horsey holiday traditions. Christmas, my much loved first horse Amy, my sister Leslie on her pony, Pokey... Tears are sliding down my cheeks as I write, but they are tears of happiness and gratitude for such cherished memories.

On Christmas Eve Day when Leslie and I were young and had horses of our own, we would deck the horses out in red and green and go for a ride together. We'd take the trail up the moraine and through the woods and come out on flatter ground which was much easier for riding - we could ride side by side and chat whereas in the woods and on the moraine we had to go single file. We were teen-age girls and we wanted to gab!

Me on Sweet Amy and Leslie on Pokey, ready to (literally) head for the hills. This is 1971. (Over 50 years ago!)

Some years my friend, Bobbie Sue, and her gelding, Starbuck, would join us.

We'd ride through neighborhoods and sometimes little kiddos would come out with carrots or sugar cubes and ask if they could pet our horses. (See my old Kodak Instamatic camera hanging from my saddle horn?)

A close up of one of Pokey's "bridle rosettes" made of satin ribbon and tied to his headstall.

Back then, the roads were a lot quieter as there were no neighborhoods or towns out that way.

Taking that ride together was a good way for us to pass the time on one of the absolute longest days of the year. (As a mom and grandmother, it is now one of the shortest!) And, it gave our parents a chance to do some last minute wrapping, assembling, or preparation without worrying about one of us popping in on them by mistake.

December 24 Advent Calendar Reveal

The last piece in this year's advent calendar is...

a unicorn!

 A very nice unicorn - look at its detail.

There were ten horses behind those calendar doors and I am pleased with each and every day's offering. I hope, hope, hope that Breyer does a new one next year. If not, then I may just have to buy the unicorn advent calendar and do that one!

Pokey, the Picket Fence, and a Poor Idea

Yesterday when I looked at those photos of the family bell, I noticed the picket fence in the picture and another set of long forgotten memories came flooding back.

That picket fence enclosed a small dog run. Access to it from the yard was through a very tiny gate. (You can glimpse that between the two trees.) Getting a mower between the posts of that little gate was difficult and frustrating. So, my dad used a different kind of mower.

Pokey.

Pokey was small enough to squeeze through the gate and into the dog run. Even better, he was too small to jump or step over the fence. So, we would bring him up from the pasture, lead him through that little gate, and he'd spend the next couple of hours happily "mowing." Win-win for us and for Pokey (Me leading my sister Jenny on Pokey.)

One day, though, it inspired a not-so-good idea. Pokey was in there munching and I got the bright idea of seeing if I could get Pokey up the porch steps and into the house. (I was seventeen and should have known better.)

No one else was home, and so... up the stairs he went and through the door into the back foyer. And then I heard the crunch of gravel as my mother drove up the driveway. I began hurriedly backing him out but she caught me with Pokey half in/half out of the house. Needless to say, she was NOT happy.

Amy and Pokey

Ask me then why I did it, and I would respond, "I don't know." Ask me now, and you would get the same response. I truly have no clue! (When a student would give me an "I don't know" response, I understood - sometimes you do things and don't know why!)

Pokey in his late thirties.

The story of me bringing Pokey into the house is a favorite one of my kids and grandkids and they enjoy having me recount it just as much as I enjoy retelling it.

I'm glad that little white picket fence prompted those memories.

A Look at Leslie

  I mention Leslie frequently on the blog, but who is she?

She's my sister (and lets me tape Hartland knock-offs to her golf cart to ensure 18th century reality),

an aunt

and an accomplished horsewoman. This is her gelding, Thor. (She and I both love those varnish roan Appaloosas.)

Leslie is a horse lover from as far back as she can remember.

Leslie laughing in delight the day we found a horse in our backyard. (She is still blonde and I am still curly.)

As a child, she developed a joint issue in both knees and was grounded from riding and other activities for over a year as she healed.

Begging to be allowed to ride again, her doctor finally consented under the caveat that we find a very gentle, bombproof horse for her. Enter Pokey, a former trick pony, who remained with her the rest of his life.

She's been riding horses along the Wabash ever since. On the shoals in front of our home on North River Road

to the grounds of Fort Ouiatenon. (She's with Cee and Amy. The girl is unknown to me.)

Leslie honors her horsey side with the riding habits she wears for The Feast of the Hunters' Moon.

She has been a part of the Feast for forty years, the last seventeen as its director.

And she has a little fun de-stressing in the week leading up to it. (Which would be this week.)

Leslie is stepping down as director at the end of this year's Feast. It's one of those bittersweet times and she will be terribly missed.

But she will still be around and no doubt she will be mentoring her replacement at next year's Feast of the Hunters' Moon.

Happy Trails, Leslie. Ya done good and I love you and am prouder of you than you will ever know.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

That's for sure!

Me on Amy and Leslie on Pokey for our annual Christmas Eve Day ride in 1974.

The Annual Christmas Eve Day Ride

On Christmas Eve Day when Leslie and I were young and had horses of our own, we would deck the horses out in red and green and go for a ride together. We'd take the trail up the moraine and through the woods and come out on flatter ground which was much easier for riding - we could ride side by side and chat whereas in the woods and on the moraine we had to go single file. We were teen-age girls and we wanted to gab!Me on Sweet Amy and Leslie on Pokey, ready to (literally) head for the hills. This is 1971. (Almost 50 years ago!)Some years my friend, Bobbie Sue, and her gelding, Starbuck, would join us.

We'd ride through neighborhoods and sometimes little kiddos would come out with carrots or sugar cubes and ask if they could pet our horses. (See my old Kodak Instamatic camera hanging from my saddle horn?)

A close up of one of Pokey's "bridle rosettes" made of satin ribbon and tied to his headstall.

Back then, the roads were a lot quieter as there were no neighborhoods or towns out that way.

Taking that ride together was a good way for us to pass the time on one of the absolute longest days of the year. (As a mom and grandmother, it is now one of the shortest!) And, it gave our parents a chance to do some last minute wrapping, assembling, or preparation without worrying about one of us popping in on them by mistake.

The last door to open in the advent calendar contains

a Firebird unicorn!

That was fun - count me in next year for another advent surprise calendar!

Dad's Slides: Birthday Party Pony Rides

As Leslie continues to scan in Dad's slides, I am seeing events that I do not remember happening. These pictures from my sister's birthday party are case in point. I have no memory of giving pony rides to Jenny and her friends at her birthday party.

It was April, 1972. I'd been a horse owner for a whopping two years and was fourteen. Jenny was turning seven and had invited her friends to our home for a party.

Me with Jenny on Pokey in our front pasture. You can see the Wabash River across the highway behind us.

The birthday girl gets the first ride. 

As you can see, the Wabash is in flood mode and has covered much of our river pasture. More than once, we had to move horses quickly to dryer pastures!

If you look behind the girl on the far right you can see a bush and a culvert that goes under the road. The highway is raised about three to four feet to keep it from being flooded. Unfortunately, that culvert allowed floodwaters to pass under the road and flood this pasture, too. Then there were times when the water rose too high and swamped the road as well as both of our pastures. Luckily, we had a third pasture that was on higher ground and never flooded.

Unlike Leslie and me, Jenny has never been horse crazy, but she did like to ride occasionally.  I haven't asked her what she remembers about this party, but my guess is that having pony rides at her birthday party made her and a lot of her friends very happy. I think I enjoyed it, too!

Horsey Jewelry with a Horsey History

The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought just a few miles from my high school, and so the name of my high school is William Henry Harrison. (He later became president of the United States.) The school's symbol is Harrison mounted on a horse.

I thought it was so cool when I was in high school to have a horse as our mascot. (Truth be told, I still do!)

The school followed the 1811 theme so closely that we even had mounted dragoons that marched with our band in parades.

 Me on my Quarter Horse, Cee Hunt, in the mid 1970s.

It was a lot of fun, and we even had a cannon that was pulled behind the horses when we marched. (It is still fired when the football team scores a touchdown. I live close enough to the school that I can hear the booms on Friday nights.)

Today I came across my old high school class ring.

 It was a struggle to get good photos of it. That's my birthstone, a peridot, in the middle.

 And there's William Henry Harrison mounted on his horse on one side of the ring.

The year I graduated and music emblems are on the other side. 

 But there's also some real horse history with (and on) the ring, too. See that divot in the band?

That's a little memento from my horses, and the time that I nearly lost my right ring finger.

Back then, we used a mix of metal and rubber feed tubs to grain our horses. You can see two of the metal ones on the left in the photo. (The pony is Pokey, a really sweet boy who could count and do other tricks.)

One day I was heading down to feed the horses, and they were milling around in anticipation. A scuffle broke out among them, and so to break it up, I picked up one of those empty metal tubs with the intention of tossing it into the paddock, thinking that the noise as it landed would surprise and stop them.

Unfortunately, the edge of my ring caught on the underside of the curled lip of the tub as I threw it. The tub jerked my finger and hand and pulled me so far off balance that I stumbled, and then the tub broke free of the ring and bounced onto the ground.

I nearly lost my finger and the ring was damaged.

I remember my father being very upset - he, too, had nearly lost a finger in World War II because of a ring he was wearing, and to the day he died he refused to wear any rings. (Not even a wedding ring.) He was that affected by his near loss. 

Dad had cautioned me about wearing this ring, or any other, when I was working with the horses and he had told me why. I had not listened, and I nearly paid a price for that.

I haven't worn my high school class ring since high school, but I do occasionally pull it out when I am going through my jewelry box and take a look at it. Always, always, always, I remember the day when I nearly lost my finger while wearing it. The history that accompanies my ring is more than just high school memories - those memories encompass that plus my earliest horses and my father and his love for me.

I slipped the ring back into my jewelry box with a wistful smile and a few tears.

Coco's "Twin"

Just as Abby is a look-alike to my first horse Amy, Coco was a "twin" to Leslie's first horse, a cob named Pokey.

An aged Pokey (mid thirties) in early spring.

Pokey had been owned by an elderly man who rode him in parades and taught him tricks - shaking hands, counting, and parking out. He would also drink soda from a can, and once figured out that I had a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in my back pocket and took a big nip out of my backside trying to get to it!

A younger Pokey with Amy - 1975.

The coincidence makes me smile - Amy and Pokey were Leslie's and my first horses, and we got Abby and Coco, their look-alikes, the same day.

We have wonderful memories of those past horses; and now the same with Coco and Abby.

Didn't Do This, Either

You know, the more I find pictures like these online, the more I think my family should quit being so shocked over the fact that I brought my horse into the house!