Happy Anniversary, Lilly!

Today marks year number three that I've been able to call my beautiful horse-child, Lilly, my own. Time seems to fly when you're a mom. Lol. It seems as if she's still the five-year-old I got her as but she's not. She's grown up a lot and for that, I'm thankful. So, in honor of our anniversary, I figured I'd tell the story of how Lily and I first met.

We met a little over three years ago, during the summer, when I showed up to a barn to start taking riding lessons again (I had ridden here a couple of times before I went to a different barn, where I consequently fractured my hip, so I decided to come back to this barn ha ha). My mom had driven me there and together we got out of the car and began walking towards the barn. And there was my mare, sticking her beautiful head out of her stall and peering around at us. I remember pointing at her and telling my mom how beautiful she was. 

One of the first pictures of Lilly. She obviously didn't want her pic taken. Haha

When we got down the the arena, which was on the other side of the barn, I met up with the barn owner and head instructor, Keri. She then introduced me to her new assistant, a young woman named Amy, who was going to help me get out a horse and tack up. She then turned to Amy and told her to get out a horse named Macy but to lunge her before we tacked up. Keri informed me that Macy was a client's horse but that the boy who owned her had recently fallen off and didn't want anything to do with her any more.

I started following Amy back through the barn and you can imagine my surprise when we stopped in front of the horse who I'd been admiring's stall. This was too good to be true and I could feel my efficient building already. We pulled her out of the stall and I brushed her down as Amy got a lunge line and whip. We walked her down to the arena and Keri addressed us.

"Now there are a few things you need to know about Macy. First off, she is still in training and the second is that she is still a little young and feisty. Which is why I'm having you lunge her first."

I watched as Amy walked her into the arena and found a corner to lunge her in. Lilly began trotting a slow circle around her so Amy kissed and asked her to pick up a canter and my mare exploded. All four hooves were off the ground and she was bucking and tossing her head. The sudden outburst had surprised Amy and the lunge line slipped out of Amy's hand. Off she went, tearing through the arena at break neck speeds, bucking and snorting the whole time.

It took us several minutes and just as many attempts to finally catch her and Keri took the lunge line and worked her until she calmed down and had burned off some energy. 10 minutes after that and I was walking a fully tacked Lilly back to the arena to start my actual lesson.

It was love at first ride the second I got on her back. She responded to all my aids and I felt so in tuned with her, like I could get her to do anything. The lesson ended up going so well that Keri informed me that we worked so well together that next week when I returned for another lesson, I would be riding her again. A week never seemed so far away!

Okay, despite my face, I was really happy to be with Lilly.

So there's my first meeting with my (now) horse. Yes, I know she's a handful lol but Keri had seen me ride before so she knew my skill level. Oh, and no horses or humans were hurt during the occurrence of these events!

Nina and Lilly