A horse named "Lady"

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Seeing as I wrote about horses a bit ago I thought I would tell you another of my old "horsey stories". I previously wrote about my experience at "Pot of Gold" stable. You can review here : http://www.mylot.com/comment/3161499/19482670/29350441 "Pot of Gold" was a very established, prestigious place, boarding show horses and being featured in nationwide magazines. My next experience was the opposite. I do not mean it in any way shape or form badly - but whereas Pot of Gold was professional and organized, this was some people, who had horses. After hanging out at "Pot of Gold" ended for me, I joined 4-H. 4-H for those who don't know - is a group for kids. It teaches life skills, leadership. A lot of farm kids join it. You can sign up for "projects" during the year. These projects culminate in an item or event you do at the local county fair. There are dozens of projects. Some of the ones I was in were photography, crochet, sewing, canning, baking, dogs, geology and, of course - the "horseless" horse project. Now in the horseless project you were to be paired up with someone with horses. You were to do chores, learn about the horse, ride, and work on showing technique. If memory serves we were to walk the horse, trot the horse and have the horse stand still for the judge to inspect it. All summer I worked with this lovely horse named Lady. She was a gaited horse, but I forget if she was either a Tennessee Walking Horse, or an American Saddlebred. She had a sweet disposition and was easy to work with. Even my parents loved her. Offering to go so far as to buy her for me. The problem was that the people who had her, didn't actually own her. She was still registered to a man who had, according to them - dropped her off with them and was unreachable. So - that was not to be. The reason I remember her as being a gaited breed is that when ridden, if you sweet your leg along her flank just so she would stop and "park out". This "park out" is used to describe a stance used in judging horses in gaited breed. The horse stretches out its rear legs, with it's front legs, head and neck held straight in the air making the horse seem very perky. Oh yes - at the fair's horse show, Lady and I were going to do great. Except, in the end, I didn't get to work with Lady. I was given only a couple times to work with a yearling. Well, the yearling and I didn't get along well and I ended up taking home third place ribbon. You might be wanting to say that third isn't bad. Until you realize I was 3 out of 3. Ha ha. Photo: Me with Lady. I think I was 17 or 18.