A horse (pony) of my own

In 1988 after many years of being horse crazy my parents finally broke down and bought us a pony. A friend of ours went with us to the Ankeny Sale Barn and helped us pick out Katie. She was your ideal starter horse - not! She was a 13 yr. old barrel pony, but she was beautiful!

Since we hadn’t planned on buying that day mom and dad had to buy a halter for her and find someone to haul her home. I had no saddle, no bridle, nothing! We finally got a bridle but still no saddle. That is when my grandfather gave me one to “borrow” until I got one of my own (I still have that saddle).

We (my sisters and I) shared Katie but that didn’t last long. She quickly learned she could buffalo my sisters so my Grandfather got on her so he could teach her a thing or two.

After grandpa left she started right back up with her normal behavior so my dad decided to get on and show her how it was done (this is the ONLY time I've ever seen my dad on a horse).

Notice the nice gaping mouth? She liked to run through the bit when you'd say whoa. To her that was an option and one that she usually didn't like to take.

While Katie wasn't the idea starter horse I'm thankful every day that my parents bought her for us. Had I started out with an old dead broke horse I'm not sure I would know the things I know today. Katie was always pushing me to learn new things.

Don't you just love the make shift tie down, tight reins, no heeled shoes, arm inside of my shirt and oh yes, the all mighty bowl hair cut.