60 SIDELINESMAY 2014
FORHORSEPEOPLE • ABOUTHORSEPEOPLE
When I married, my husband had no real idea of the extent of
my interest in horses. However, when wemoved to a rural area,
hewas accepting of my desire to finally have a horse and agreed
toalsoget one forour youngdaughter,whoproved tobeashorse-
crazy as her mother. As luck would have it, we were introduced
to people in the local Morgan horse community and eventually
bought twoMorganmares. I later tradedmine for DancityWingn
Prayer (Wing), a 2 1/2-year-old colt who needed to be a gelding.
For his Christmas present, he got to spend a little time with the
vet.
Wing was intended from the start to be my dressage horse,
but first, we did long lining. Then, he learned a little bit about trail
ridingwhenhewent under saddle.Weworkedondressage in the
evenings, sometimes in themoonlight and sometimes sharing the
arenawithpassingdeer.Weprogressed steadily toFourthLevel,
showing all along the way. Our highlight just beforeWing retired
was a score of 65at Fourth Level Test One.
But thatwasn’t allwedid.Wingproved tobeanoutstanding trail
horse and we spent many happy days on the Pacific Crest Trail
hikingwithmy husband.We also showed successfully at Morgan
shows in hunter pleasure and participated for several years in a
quadrillewithour local CaliforniaDressageSociety chapter.Wing
now spends his time trail riding and pursuing
his
lifelong goal –
enjoying theperfect nap. And I still have that booklet fromVienna.
Barbara andWing became Century Club Team #134 on June
13, 2013, at theGoldenStateDressageShow inRanchoMurieta,
California.
About thewriter: Barbara Fleming lives in the foothills of the Sierras inCalifornia
withher husbandof 47 years, twohorsesandadogand cat. Thehorsesprovide fuel
for her other hobby, gardening. She is happily awaiting bloom season for over 100
peonies, aswell as crabapple and cherry trees.
e
NeverTooOld
ByBarbaraFleming
T
his is a story of what can happen when your
father can’t afford a horse for you when you
are a horse-crazy kid.
I grew up in a still-slightly rural suburb of Los Angeles where
some families were able to keep horses. Since mine didn’t, I
had to satisfy my passion by reading horse books and bumming
rides on the neighbors’ horses. By the age of 8 or so, I was
probably bent in the direction of dressage by a little booklet my
grandmother broughtme fromher visit toViennaand theSpanish
RidingSchool. I fell in lovewith the look of themen in bicorn hats
riding their stately horses. I think that was about the same time
that I decided aMorganwas about as close as I could get to the
Lipizzaner type. Of course, I had never met a live horse of either
breed.
BarbaraFleming
Photo bySheri Scott
Barbaraholds
her Spanish
RidingSchool
booklet that
inspiredher
somany years
ago.
TheDressageFoundation’sCenturyClub is a program designed to honor senior dressage riders and their senior horses. To become amember,
theages of the horse and ridermust add up to at least 100 years and theymust ride any level dressage test before a judge or dressage
professional. Formore informationon theDressageFoundation, please visit
ALittleBooklet FromVienna
