For Lucky & Revka

Friday's Luck, or Lucky, was my very first pony, and quite the most exciting thing to happen in my life to that point, or so I felt at the time. He was bought on Friday the 13th for my sister and I to share, and we were determined to not let that influence our luck with him at all. As it turned out, my sister soon got another horse, and Lucky became all my responsibility... and 13 became a bit of a lucky number for he and I both. It was with him that I got my first jumping blue, as I noted above... and at one show with him, wearing the number 13, we took two first place ribbons, one second, and the divisional championship for that show.

Lucky was a spooky little appaloosa gelding that taught me a lot about riding... mostly from needing to correct his bad habits! But slowly and surely patience won him through -- over time he lost his fear of men, of loading into the horse van, and we had several other small breakthroughs with him as well, with the help of my family. However, the one I'm proudest of I did by myself.

See, Lucky had a rather unpleasant habit of tossing his head at the slightest pressure on the reins, to the extent that I got smashed in the face a few times before I learned to watch for it. My father had me change bits twice, each time to a lighter bit, but Lucky still tossed his head. Dad then had me try whacking Lucky with a riding crop each time he tossed his head... that didn't work either. If anything, in fact, it made Lucky more head-shy. At that point my father gave up on him as a bad job, and left him to me.

It took me a while, but I developed an extremely light hand on the reins. We also did a lot of leg and voice work, so that I used the reins as little as possible. It took almost a year, but Lucky finally stopped tossing his head! I was so proud of him... and pleased too, because the two of us starting winning routinely! Indeed, it looked as if we were on our way to winning the yearly divisonal championship in the geographical area we lived in. Lucky and I had become quite the team together, and the two of us were well ahead of the closest contender -- Lucky and I had finally 'arrived'! ;-)

Alas, while I was out of state visiting relatives my father sold Lucky. Unsurprisingly the 'gentleman' that bought Lucky soon renegged on the verbal-only agreement my father had with him to allow me to finish out the season with Lucky... and also unsurprisingly with a new rider Lucky immediately took to tossing his head again.

I was 15 when my father sold Lucky. Many years have passed since that time... yet I still choose to view the team Lucky and I made as a triumphant shared 'lion' for the two of us. Despite the odds against us, despite being forced to drop out mid-season, we had shown so well that by the end of the year Lucky and I still came in reserve champions for our division.

I never saw him again after that last show I was allowed to ride him in. I hope he had a good life.

Revka (or occasionally an affectionate "Reev-sy") was another 'trouble' horse. She was a strapping 16 hands and a little bit -- a cold blood cross. She was beautiful -- black all over except for her few white points... a cursive white 'P' on her forehead, a cute little white sort of moustachio on her upper lip, a near rear white sock, and a small white patch on her near rump that was small enough for me to cover with my hand.

*sigh* Sorry... old memories. I'll write more when I can.