ahhhh the memories...

I'm a nerd. A nerd in every sense of the word. I told this to my primary kids last Sunday, and they laughed. Then I asked them more about themselves, and I called them nerds. They didn't think it was that funny, but nerds are pretty much my favorite people. These people do not hide their true colors. They don't do the cool thing, not because it's a cool thing that they're trying to avoid (hipsters. blegh), but they are genuinely weird people who do what they think is cool or interesting or fun. And it doesn't always fit a social "norm." Stupid term. Very stupid term. We've gone too long letting society tell us what's normal and ok. ANYWAY.....

I've been a nerd for a very long time. Since I can remember pretty much. I'm a book worm. Ask anyone. Especially as a kid, if my mom couldn't find me, I would be in my closet reading. That's me. Closet reader. It got to the point where I was reading too much. People will say, "Impossible!" But I was literally in my own world. All day. Everyday. Books were my escape. They still would be too, if I had time for that sort of frivolity. A classmate of mine would tell you that word is $1.75. Which is pretty pricey.

Books were not my only nerdery growing up. I was a horse geek. Freak? Nerd. It all started with my sister. I blame her mostly, but I loved them all on my own as well. In the beginning, it was barbies. We had barbies, and we had the barbie horses. You bet your sweet bottom that we had a barbie castle as well. So many hours. So many adventures. We got really close playing all the time together that way. It was inevitable that it would leak into our everyday lives. C. was more of a nerd about it than I was. She got all technical, learning pretty much everything she could about horses. And by everything, I mean, everything. Breeds, riding styles, equipment, training, events, shows, magazines...she would draw horses every Sunday in church. Every. Sunday. (It sounds like I'm making fun, but really I'm not. Imagine a kid that devoted to one thing. Just the one, and dedicating hours upon hours of her own time to learn things on her own. By herself. Amazing.) Well all that study, and play, and excitement led to some pretty amazing places.

C. was in fourth grade. I was in second. Everything changed when she met Ally*. (*Name changed for privacy purposes.) Ally and C. shared the same love of those four-legged heartthrobs. The difference was that Ally was born on a ranch. A HUGE ranch. With TONS of horses. Real ones. The worlds collided. They started hanging out at school, and soon they were hanging out outside of school. At Ally's amazing ranch. Did they ride horses together? OF COURSE THEY DID. She would come home and rave about all her adventures, and the jealousy would threaten to take me over. After awhile, C. revealed a special secret she had been keeping: Ally had a younger sister. She was a grade ahead of me, and she was awesome. Well, I was determined that we, too, would be best friends. 

I remember the day that I forced myself to meet her. We were on the playground at school, and she was being chased by boys. Once I caught up to her, I introduced myself, and she was so nice! I practically died with happiness. Ashley* and I became fast friends, and the day came when I was able to partake of the joys of real horses and real riding. Those were the days. The four of us could have died of happiness. We would have the craziest adventures, get into trouble, get hurt, cry (that was always me. The crier. C. was mean and slapped my horse's rump one day to make him run. My life flashed before my eyes. That was an especially dramatic day), but we always had a blast. There were times when the pastures would be flooded with not just irrigation water, but the river that was the border of the property would flood often, and we would canoe through the pastures, but the best part was riding in the water. Think of a carousel ride. That was exactly the feeling in water. 

We were so nerdy, we started a secret club, with rules, and officers, and a clubhouse. I would pay quite a lot of money to be able to go back and watch us at that time. We took it a step further. We joined 4-H. Oh yes. Yes we did. And we LOVED it. It took up so much time, and our mom was the biggest trooper ever in the entire history of the world. Super chauffer. Super supporter. C. and I shared a horse that  she "leased" from a man named Tom. The horse's name was "No-name." And he taught me almost everything I know. He was big and lanky, and the most patient horse in the history of the world. I can still remember exactly what he looked like. He wasn't beautiful, but he wasn't ugly. There was nothing super special or flashy about him, but we loved that guy so much. What a huge blessing he was for us. We took him to the shows, and he was always a champ. We won dozens of ribbons, and in August, the grandaddy of all the shows rolled around.

The night before the Western Idaho Fair started was probably one of the worst nights of my life. For the 2 or 3, (was it 4?) years that we showed there, that night was full of zero sleep. The nerves were raw. The emotions were at the surface. The Fair was the culmination of all our hard work in 4-H throughout the year. This was where we literally showed our stuff. We were tested on knowledge and things we had improved on throughout the year, and we had classes we could enter that were the actual show. That first year was a doozy for me. I won two of my classes in my first year. I WON THEM. Proving the aforementioned nerdery. What a thrill! What a rush!

We continued with our horse-craziness for as long as we could. For me, once high school rolled around, I didn't have as much time, and the horse thing sort of fell to the wayside. I never stopped loving them, and I never forgot the things I learned. C. kept it going longer than I did. She ended up buying her own horses. The time came when she had to give them up for awhile, and she was pretty devastated. I know that's not the end for her. She's got too much horse in her blood to let it go for long. 

Except for my little stint of volunteering at a horse therapy program this past summer, it had been years since I'd been on a horse. I still consider myself a nerd, and I could easily embarrass myself by divulging the knowledge that I do have. It's extensive. But I'm so glad that I got to be blessed enough to be one of those horse girls that actually did the real thing. Not just imagining. Because what's not to love?