~*~

My submission to Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness Week 27 takes us to sunny Spruce Meadows just south of Calgary, Alberta.

These children waiting with anticipation for the next horse and rider to appear for a big show jumping class in the main grandstand remind me of when I was a little girl with an insatiable passion for horses.

I started riding lessons at age 10 at a stable in north London, England. When I wasn’t at the stable I was reading horse books, leafing through the Moss Bros. equipment catalogue ad nauseum, making copious lists of horse names and colours and temperaments, and playing show jumping in the back yard with my best friend, pretending we were horses and launching ourselves over home made obstacles constructed from brooms and buckets and anything else we could find that would serve.

And certainly, I was daydreaming of having a horse to call my own one day ~ one I would keep in the shed in the back yard and gallop around the local park. 😉 (I had to wait 33 years for my dream to come true ~ minus the shed, etc. See my blog Musings of a Horse Mom for more about my experiences with my darling Shakespeare aka Bear.)

In the summer I would watch televised broadcasts from Hickstead ~ the main outdoor venue in England for the big show jumping events at the time (it still is, I think). In the fall I’d get special permission to stay up late the week the Horse of the Year show which, at the time was televised from Wembley Arena, not far from where we lived.

Occasionally, I even got to go. Oh the sights, the sounds, the smells … pure heaven!

I lived for the thrill of just seeing a horse (when I wasn’t at the stable) and being with the horses when I was there.

During the roller coaster of life I’ve fallen off the equestrian wagon a few times and had no contact with horses at all. It can safely be said that those were among the most miserable times for me. Separated from my passion I was denied an important part of my Self.

A death in the family 20 years ago brought me back to the horse and, as it turns out, this free-spirited animal in all its beauty and wisdom has proven to be a catalyst for positive change and an important partner in my healing journey.

And it’s all because I was a little girl with a passion for horses.

Thanks for visiting,

Dorothy

~*~

©Dorothy Chiotti … Aimwell CreativeWorks 2014