Jessica Anderson

English 102

April 6, 2011

Righty Tightly, Lefty Lucy

There are tractors and trucks, skid steers and log splitters rushing up the long dirt drive

way to different paddocks. Today is the day everyone from the barn is required to show up and

help rebuild the barn fences. I fit my car in the only open space to park. I am immediately

greeted my four huge dogs. I spot Jen giving out directions to some boarders. She must be very

happy her dad sells all this lumber. All of the horses are locked in their stalls. I feel bad because

it is so nice out. Jen introduces me to all the men working on the equipment. I say hi and try to

remember all their names. Soon I learn that they are all her brothers. I walk around to see who is

there. I spot Jen’s daughter and another little girl from the barn playing in the ring. It makes me

smile because I remember being that young and having the same passion for horses that they

have at such a young age.

One of the boarders that I did not get to know yet was walking around aimlessly with a

hammer. Jen redirected her to the muddy paddock. I watched as she sunk in her English riding

boots, cursing that she just bought them. She walks over to someone working on the fence and

starts to complain saying she does not know why she has to be here. Her father pays to keep her

horse here and she should have to partake in repairing fences. I find Hoss, the owner of the

Frisian stallion. I finally get to talk one on one about his plans for Elvis. He tells me that Elvis is

behaving so much better now that he gets out every day in the round pen. I smile and tell him

that’s really great and just from the small amount of time I have been coming to the barn I have

seem a drastic improvement of his ground manners. I make a point to also point out how great
his feet look. “They do, don’t they. Well for another year or so he will be barefoot and then he

will go to shoes. I mean, I want to make sure he has the best of the best. My dad was a mounted

police officer and his horses were always shoed. They have been forever.” Elvis will start next

year (he will begin the processes of being able to ride and taking the bit, the metal instrument

used to steer most horse). He’s a little over two years old and his bones are not done growing,

starting to ride to early can lead to serious health issues regarding bones and joints. A lot of race

horses have such problems. Today is really busy but I get to see everyone at the barn at once and

how they interact with the other boarders and me.

Bri and Lindsey are working together on taking all the electric fencing down. They are

always together at the barn; I have never once seen them apart, except when one is riding. They

got their shared horse Busta off the race track last year. He just was not what the owners wanted.

A thoroughbred, like Busta, is used for racing. Most do not make up the time needed to race.

They put a lot of work into him in the past year. Lindsey said it’s really hard to go to school so

far away and only get to see him on the weekends. Bri just smiles. She says she goes to school

locally and visits him every day before work even if it is to just give him an apple. They tell me

he has on metal shoes because their vet advised them to leave them on when they asked if he

could go barefoot.

As I continue walking around I see Jens daughter, Kay. Kay’s friend runs up to me very

enthusiastically, saying that they get to ride later when the fences are finished. They bring me

over to a very older looking small pony. Kay tells me Dusty is going to be one hundred and sixty

seven tomorrow and she is very excited to make her a cake! I do not even have to ask any

questions because she is talking so fast and indulging in her whole five year life stories. She has

been riding since the day her mom let her come out of her tummy. Last year she needed help
riding Dusty, “mommy would have to hold the long rope so Dusty wouldn’t run me into the

street but now I don’t need help, I am five”. She gives Dusty a pat just as fast as she was talking

she left to finishes playing with her friend in the ring.

I ran into a boarder I only had met only once when she made clear by her facial

expressions she did not want to me bother her. I saw her struggling to get her paint gelding to

walk past all the commotion of the bob cats. He was rearing up and she was trying to pull him

back down. Not only is she not doing the correct thing she could get hurt. I walk over and ask if

she wants help. She hands me the lead rope and tells me that she doubts I could if she could not.

I imagined she would think that in her head but I wasn’t really expecting her to say it out loud.

When her horse reared up again I stepped to the side of him and pulled his head to the side that

way he lost his balance and had to come back down. I made him do a circles giving me my space

but also to distract him from the bob cat and he simply walked right by. I hand the lead rope back

to her and tell her I had work with a horse that rears and tries to strike out. As I walking away

she introduces herself as Jill and asked me more about the horse I work with.

After talking to Jill about what I did she finally opened up. As a kid she moved around a

lot and never made any real friends. She didn’t like sports. “My mom got really worried about

me so one day she drove me to a dressage barn in Pennsylvania and that’s where I started”. She

met her now husband while buying the horse Baby, that was rearing up. He was selling him

because he had adopted him from a rescue just to fatten him up and sell him. I smile and wait for

her to continue but she doesn’t. The little connection I had made by helping her with Baby had

left her memory and she looks aggravated to be talking with me. I thanked her for her time and

tried to find someone a little more friendlily.

 I finally find Jen alone and ask her if she has a minute to talk. She laughs and asks what

took me so long. She grew up riding and loving the sport. She competed since she was a young

girl, hunt seat and jumping. When the opportunity came along to build a barn behind her dad

house she jumped at the idea. The barn had started off as a full board facility (where the barn

manager takes full care of your horse). She told me she got her paint pony gelding Roper when

he was six months old. She started him and trained him into the jumper he is now, eight years

later. After she got pregnant with her daughter Kay she decided she wanted to do a co-op barn so

that she could be home with the baby and still keep her dream of having a barn. She was so

excited to have a daughter so that she could pass on the passion for horses. She tells me that at

times it can be difficult to run a business on your father’s property but she admits she would

never be able to have her barn without him. And she adds she would never be able to afford all

the lumber they are using today. Jen tells me her biggest pet peeve is when her boarders slack off

on their duties. They only have to do a shift two or three times a week and they have it pretty

easy. She adds that she hates when people run out of hay and not even asking use her hay to feed

the horses that do not have any. “I mean of course I do not want a horse to go a night without a

few flakes of hay but at least ask me first, you know”. I tell her I understood I used to be at a

barn that I literally had to only bring over enough food for the day because if I left my hay there

it would be gone much quicker. She rolls her eyes and says she cannot stand it! Her horse Roper

was left barefoot and never shod. He had nice feet as a baby. He was her first and only horse that

was barefoot. Now that Kay is in kindergarten she is excited to start working with Hoss’ horse

Elvis. She had loved starting Roper and wanted to start another project. She admits she never has

worked with a stallion but will not let that be an excuse to let him get away with anything. I

really like the way she thinks and smile.

 I let Jen get back to repairing the fences; I noticed she kept looking out the window. She

apologized for having to cut short but she needed to redirect her brother and boyfriend who were

enjoying their cold beer more than getting the posts in the ground. Before she left the tack room

she turned and told me if I wanted to talk to someone with a very different outlook on horses to

talk to Kandice. She points her out as the girl who had complained about having to help.

Kandice practically sprints over to me. She looked more excited to get away from the

fences than she is to talk to me. After only a few minutes of talking with her I realized what Jen

had meant about her having a different outlook. She spends five minutes dominating the

conversation complaining about why she was here. She tells me that she rides when she has the

time, and her dad pays for whatever she wants. I wear a forced smile as she tells me that she

want to get a Hoverian cross but she could not get one until she helped do the fences. I tell her

thank you for your time but I will be late to my client’s barn if I don’t leave right now. I wave

bye to Jen who gives me a “wasn’t I right” look. As I maneuvered my car around all the

equipment and piles of wood I realized my many assumptions where wrong about most of the

boarders. I was intrigued with Jen and her true knowledge of horses. After talking to with

Kandice I had instance flash backs of the prissy annoying girls that were at the barn were I

worked at when I was little. I decided I needed to stop assuming things about a person just by the

style that they ride because I liked and respected most of the people at MagicPenny.
Bibliography

Grimm, L. Emily. "The Complete Horse Care Manual." RQ 35.4 (1996): 550+. Academic

OneFile. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

The article by Emily Grimm is her interpretation of how to take care of horses.

I read through this article and really thought that I would be able to extract some of what

the author thought was the correct way to care for a horse. I Could compare it to not only

the way that Magic Penny Cared for their horses but how natural horsemanship

instructors care for their horses.

Kaplan-Leiserson, Eva. "Horse sense for leaders: in this leadership course, horses have the reins.

(Intelligence).(natural horsemanship)." T+D 57.3 (2003): 18+. Academic OneFile. Web.

8 Apr. 2011.

This article was more based on natural horsemanship. Much what I do with Moon and the

horses I work with. I thought I would be able to use this a a comparison to the previous

article. I could use this to also compare to how Magic Penny keeps their horses.

Lamb, Rick. Human to Horseman: A Journey of Discovery, Growth, and Celebration. North

Pomfret: Trafalagar Square Books, 2008. Print.

This is another great book about natural horsemanship. His book is more broken down

offer advise from many well know horse trainers, veterinarians and clinicians. This is

another book I can use to help beef up my research paper.

Parelli, Pat. Natural Horsemanship. Colorado Springs: Western Horseman, 1993. Print.

 This book is all about the natural way of communicating with horses. Pat Parelli is a

worldwide known horseman. I learned a lot from this book when I was starting a young

foal I worked with. I can tie this in my paper just by the way some of the boarders ride

and handle the horses.

Roberts, Monty. Shy Boy The Horse That Came in from the Wild. New York: HarperCollins,

2000. Print.

This book is about a man known as a horse whisperer who was able to join up with a wild

mustang using humane methods much different from the methods used at that time. He

has been to many clinics and has a world of knowledge he loves to get out to all different

types of people.

"The green guide for horse owners and riders; sustainable practices for horse care, stable

management, land use, and riding." SciTech Book News (2009). Academic OneFile. Web.

7 Apr. 2011.

This was another article that was written on how to take care of horses. I am not

completely sure how this will tie into my paper but it was worth having down as another

cite.

“Town of Hanover Board of Health”. http://www.hanover-ma.gov. Web. 7 April 2011.

This article gives a clear and concise outline of the laws in Hanover on how to keep your

horse and the regulations you need to follow. This will be useful for me because Magic

Penny is a stable in Hanover. The barn needs to follow these rules and regulations.