A Hope And A Dream

I have been searching high and low for the ultimate horse for my daughter's dream. This is not a whimsy that she has, it's very real and it has lasted for many years. Sometimes our children have a want for a puppy, for instance, and after the "new" has worn off, they do not always tend to it like before, and we as parents end up doing the job. Puppies are great. .....and require alot of care. However, in our case, it's a horse. Years ago (4), my daughter was wanting a horse. I didn't have the money to spend on one, and didn't even know what all it required. I did some research on them, and decided to let my daughter have a taste of what it would be like. I enrolled us into a 4-H program with a barrel racing group. These women were the greatest and so delightful, and helpful. Everyone there had a horse except for us. But that was ok. Soon, my daughter started learning how to ride, and eventually did some barrel racing. She is a natural. But not only did she ride, she learned how to groom, how to feed, clean feet, and clean out stalls. Yes, the hard stuff, and more. I also enrolled her into a program through our local habitat-for-horses and she learned alot there too. How to go and get a horse out of the field, grooming, safety tips of how to get off the horse quickly in case she had to, and things went well. Here we are, about 4 years later, and the dream has not died. She has been in English jumper training for a year now and has been using the trainer's horse. It's been 4 whole years, and the dream has not died even after doing all the hard stuff. And I mean some stuff is hard. This summer she has been working and volunteering in the stables and I now feel it's time for her to have her horse. I have been looking and thanks to her trainer helping us, hopefully soon my darling teen will get her dream. She is going to be 14 yrs old on the 14th. How wonderful is that?