Stories from the Amazon - Memorable horses of my youth

I wanted to remember the special things about some of the favorite horses who came through my life during my time in the Amazon so I decided to write some of their stories, hopefully in the order in which they came into my life.

First off was Nathaniel. He was the first of many horses I have owned, purchased with very hard earned money. I was given permission as an 11 year old to start saving up and earning money for a horse. I pocketed every penny, worked every job I could possibly find and didn't even buy candy or gum. I wanted a horse so bad. A week after m 14th birthday my dad took me to look at a broken down, retired cart horse with saddle sore on his back and it was love at first sight. He taught me so much about horses and horse ownership. I wanted to name him Napoleon after the grey cart horse in
The Black Stallion but decided Nathaniel was a better name since it means 'gift from God".  I rode him, took care of him and loved him until we went on furlough when I was 16 years old. Nathaniel got sick and went down and since I wasn't even in the country, the other missionaries who were taking care of him called us very early one morning and said they though we should put him down. It broke my heart to not be there.

Then came Foxy. I've already written a bit about the fireball chestnut mare that she was. She taught me so much more about horses, how to keep my seat in the saddle, how to jump, gallop full speed, and a million other things. She threw me into the dirt more times than I can even remember. I had to tie her to a post and dance a jig with one foot in the stirrup every time I wanted to ride. Once I got on her and both feet firmly in the stirrups, I'd lean over and untie her and hang on for dear life because she would bolt and run super fast. If I stayed on, then she would settle down and we'd usually have a good ride, unless she threw me! One time she was galloping up a hill after a rain. The grass was slick. At the top of the hill was a huge tree with low hanging branches and she was heading straight towards it. Then I realized that I didn't have any sort of control over her speed. Finally at the last minute, I got her to turn and avoid the tree, but her feet slipped out from under her due to the speed she was galloping at and I went flying over her neck to the ground and fractured my wrist. Later, when I took my shirt off, there was a perfect muddy hoofprint in the middle of my back, but I had no bruise or mark or anything. God really protected me from getting trampled.We had many other similar adventures. We had such a close bond and she was a difficult horse to ride and all my friends who attempted to ride her were thrown. She's one of the few horses I've owned that I truly regret not hanging on to forever. Sadly I was at the point of life where I had to go to college and didn't know where life would take me so I sold her.

Charis came along during the time I had Foxy. She was a pretty 7/8ths dark bay small quarter horse mare, my first registered horse. I saw her at the annual fairgrounds and worked out a deal and was able to acquire her. She was very fun to ride for the first years I owned her. She had two foals for me, a colt who I named Cherokee and a filly who I named Tirzah. Then she never had any more babies. I had a vet examine her later and he told me she had cysts in her uterus. I believe him though because it seemed like she was in heat for 3 weeks out of the month and only had about one good week per month when her hormones weren't making her an angry dragon mare. The peculiar thing about Charis is that she never cantered/loped/galloped. Not even playing around loose in the pasture. I never ever saw her run. She could however trot as fast as any other horse could canter fast. One time when I was teaching kiddos riding lessons in Brazil, we took some horses down the trail to the creek for a fun outing. The kids took all the better horses and I was left to ride Charis. Several of them wanted to canter so we started, and try as I might I couldn't get her to go into a canter . We were all so amazed. It felt like we were flying and I had to just stand in the stirrups because there was no way to sit that big, long, fast trot, nor any way to post it either.

After Charis came my first stallion, Chancellor. I also found him at the fairgrounds. He caught my eye because he was an Appaloosa and I LOVED those horses with color like that. He was very flashy and perfectly marked and tall. I fell madly in love and found the owner and worked out a deal with him to purchase the horse. Chancellor was only a 3 year old, barely broke. Basically all he knew was to not buck you off, to go when you kick your legs and stop when you pull back on the reins and sort of how to turn. I boarded him at the fairgrounds and every day I would either ride my bike or take the bus and walk the rest of the way to go ride and train him. I figured out on my own how to get him to leg yield, side pass, rollback and a bunch of other cool stuff. He was a lot of fun and I rode him all over the place. He was the sire to the two babies Charis had. After I moved Chancellor back to our farm  I'd take him on really long rides exploring different roads, places, and he had a comfy gait that was easy to ride. One time when some friends came to the farm for a barbeque they turned on some loud country music. Chancellor had been on the other side of the hill in the pasture. He got so excited to hear the music that he galloped over and around and around the covered area where we hung hammocks and grilled our food.. He remembered that style of music from his previous owners I guess and apparently he liked it!

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