It is official! School is coming back this Monday! Now any normal person would think this is a bad thing, but not for me because I love to teach and if there are no kids to teach then I pretty much have nothing to do the whole summer, so I’m very excited for school to start back up.
There might have been no kids the whole summer at the Sheltering Tree, but there were horses. There are always horses, and I have a fear of horses or at least I did until this summer. Let me tell you the story!
When I was three years old I was not scared of horses, but one day I was petting and feeding a horse, a very nice horse, and I accidentally made a fist with my hand when I was feeding it. He didn’t bite me, he just nipped a little, but me being three years old I was scared. That experience didn’t make me scared of horses, though.
When I was about seven or eight years old my family had some family friend who owned horses and I was okay with it. I would ride them and help feed them, but one day we were in the pond with the horses. I had gotten on one of them; of course it was the meanest horse! The horse started to run out of the water, and I was just a little girl and terrified. I started to slide off the horse into the water almost going under the horse. So she tried to trample me while drowning me, and I froze. I couldn’t hurry and jump off the horse because I was terrified! So my friend’s mom pulled me off the horse right before the horse ran out of the water and started to dart off. I could only imagine what would have happened if I stayed on the horse.
Now why I chose to write about this particular story is because today 8/19/2016 I had my first riding lesson from my sister at the Sheltering Tree. I have ridden a horse twice at the Sheltering Tree before and those times where my first time getting on in almost eight years. I was scared and shaking the whole time so in my mind it doesn’t count for me. But today I got on by myself and was okay. I wasn’t scared, I learned how to lead a horse, it was awesome! I can’t believe I’m saying this but I can’t wait till next time!
Well I hope that everyone had a great summer and has a great school year.
~ Alesha Dodd
Alesha Dodd, 14, has been homeschooled her whole life.