Long ago, in the dark ages of my life, I was a not so naked girl with a pony. Her name was Sandpiper. She was, quite honestly, my best friend. She came into my life when I was eleven years old and was quite certain that there was really no use to go on with the whole horseback riding business because I had outgrown my favorite pony at the time, Blackberry, and well, what use was there riding if I couldn't ride Blackberry?
Sandpiper had been "left" at the barn by her former owners because their children no longer wanted to ride her and she was a bit "too much to handle" for any beginner rider or even some of the more advanced ones. She had a very strong and willful personality and you had to do things on her terms, not the other way around. But if you were able to convince her that something was actually "her idea", well then, you were golden.
At eleven, I was quite similar to Sandpiper in personality, I'll admit it. And I do believe that perhaps there were some adults in my life that convinced me that it was "my idea" that Sandpiper was just the pony for me. I spent hours and hours and hours upon her back, riding around in circles, riding on trails, jumping jumps, and yes, occasionally flying over jumps while she stood on the other side having decided that THAT particular jump wasn't a jump that she necessarily felt like jumping that day. I have the concussions to prove this.
Still, Sandpiper and I became rather inseparable. She would follow me around, literally, without need for a lead line or even a halter. I just would call her name and start walking and she'd follow. I could say, "Stay" and she'd stay. I could wander over to the wash tubs, ask her to stay, and give her a bath and she wouldn't move until I told her it was time to go. I could stand her outside her stall and braid her mane for HOURS and she'd never move. Unless someone had, perhaps, brought a chocolate cake for the barn bake sale and placed it on the bench outside the tack room. Then you'd find her up to her eyeballs in chocolate frosting and having to explain to the distraught baker that your pony happens to have a thing for chocolate cake and you'll pay for it, you really will, but can't you see she just LOVES IT?? She was truly like a big, cuddly puppy dog.
Our relationship, quite frankly, was not unlike Danae's relationship with her horse, Lucy, in the comic strip Non Sequitur. And today's comic strip? Today's just made me laugh and laugh. Because, I swear to Goddess, I had this exact same thing happen to me with Sandpiper during summer camp, too.
I miss Sandpiper. You know she lived to be 33? That's a really long time for a pony. It must have been all that love and chocolate cake.
