Ode to Joy

This is cheesy and sentimental but I am posting it anyway.

We never had a lot of money when I was growing up, I always worked for my lessons and bought my own horses, my parents were supportive. But as a kid I generally got stuck with the horses with "issues" or were funny looking. My friends got pretty show quality welsh ponies and I got a fugly untrained mustang who taught me a lot. I was just excited to be riding so I did everything I could to learn more and be a better horse owner and rider, but it still sucked to see my friends have opportunity that I didn't.

I got Joy when she was a year and a half old, friend of a friend thought she was cute and I should have a look at her, I picked her up for $400. with half arab registration. She wasn't really anything to look at being a weird pink colour, she looked like someone had randomly thrown bleach at her in splashes. She was small and sorta halter broke, the lady I worked for spent a lot of time trying to convince me that she would never amount to anything, she was to reactive, would be way to small for me and I should sell her to buy her friend's colt. Joy spent the first month I owned her trying to nip me then she got butt high and looked like a dinosaur.

She moved with me to West Virginia, we worked through her dietary issues, and she taught me a lot on how to be an aware trainer. I came close to selling her a couple times, Owning a horse was a huge drain on my finances, but I persevered.

She is six now, we have had a really good summer, went swimming in the river, debuted at our first show, started jumping, had an overnight camping trip and we both learned a lot. My friends say the reason we get a long so well is we are so similar, and honestly in learning to work with her I have come to understand myself better and I think I am a more whole person from it as well as being a more effective rider.

Earlier today I went out to feed the baby and let Joy out to graze by the barn, as she trotted out to the grass all I could think was "damn, she is mine."

She turned out really well and while she is not a perfect horse, she is perfect for me and I am grateful.

Thank you for reading.