The Mare

Velvet

My best present was from Little Tina. I rode her without a saddle. It was cold and so muddy I slipped and fell off the ramp at the end of the barn and that was even before I got on the horse. Pat said when it was this cold, she used to like to go bareback to feel warm from the horse. And I said, “Can I do it?” And she told me yes, because it was Christmas. And we took off the saddle and when I got on Little Tina it was warm all up in my legs. The cold air was on my face but I was warm. I could feel her muscles; it was like I could feel her blood. We only walked and practiced steering, going backward and in a circle and zigzag around things.

But then she started to go at a trot. She did it without asking me. “Whoa!” yelled Pat, but she kept going. So I pressed my butt deep into her body and I talked soft and pulled back on the reins and said, “Whoa” soft. And she stopped. Pat came running up and said, “Excellent!” And I was in the sky.

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I got some other good stuff too. A pink radio and CD player that said “Princess” on it and earrings in the shape of tiny red flowers and a Celia Cruz CD and a blue Gap shirt with a big zipper in the front. And I met Paul’s daughter from his other wife. She was nice.