Me and my old friend, Red, at Woodcock Hill Riding Academy, 1991. (Please note the fabulous attire--perfect for stall mucking)I have A LOT of information I need to get into the chapters. My interviewees are THE BEST: They are so willing to share their stories with me.
And let me tell ya--they are GREAT stories. It is an honor to transcribe them.
The Morgan horses at UConn live in so many hearts. Many alumni I've talked with tell me that their time at UConn was life changing and was some of the most fun they've ever had. Being young and surrounded by horses--- living the barn life, riding all the time, making forever friends--it can transform a soul.
I can understand it, because it happened to me.
I lived and worked at a nearby riding academy during my time as a UConn student. I would get up well before the sun to muck stalls before my 8am class, eat a second breakfast, throw the bike in the back of my pickup, drive to UConn, park, jump on the bike and ride to the art building all the way on the other side of campus....it was a fun and very busy time of my life.
I shared a house with a bunch of horse crazy women and we usually had wood shavings and oats embedded in our socks and hay in our hair. I am still friends with many of these women today.
We lived in service of the horse; we bonded over the care of our beloved charges.
We fed them, kept their stalls clean, brushed the shavings out of their tails. We rode them and learned from them. We cheered when they won a ribbon at a show. We cried when they left us.
Your whole being changes when you have horses in your life. Something in your soul clicks into place when you hear the soft, friendly nickers of hungry horses as you slide the barn doors open just as the early morning light peers over the horizon.
You are never the same after that....
