Your Turn: Help, I’m a horse-crazy little girl trapped in a grown-up body

On her 28th birthday, HN contributor Biz Stamm reflects on growing older but not wiser.

From Biz:

Today I celebrate my 28^th birthday. The big 3-0 is sneaking up on me fast, but that’s OK because 30 is the new 20, right? RIGHT!? You’d think at this point I’d be getting more mature, but the truth is I still get a huge kick out of poop jokes, and cartoons. This past year I decided it was finally time buy myself a horse, and in the process discovered that my immaturity carried over into my horse buying habits as well.

The plan was to get something between 2 and 4 years old, that I could begin to show within the next year. I was interested in adopting a mustang. I had worked with them a lot in the past and really enjoyed the process of earning the trust of a wild horse, but I was also willing to consider other breeds.

One day on a whim, I decided to go look at a 7 year-old kiger mustang mare and her 5 month-old baby. Neither one really met my criteria, but looking couldn’t hurt. Could it? Upon arriving at the farm, I was confronted with possibly the most adorable baby horse I have seen in my entire life. The little girl inside my head squealed “EEEE! BABY HORSE!!! BUY HIM!” But the rational adult inside me said, “He’s far too young. It would be impractical to buy him.”

The baby, a gorgeous, dun colt shot me a curious glance with his big, brown eyes and began walking in my direction. It was at that exact moment that my inner child and inner adult waged all out war on one another. “BABY HORSE!” screamed my inner child. “Be practical!” retorted my inner adult.

All I need to tell you is that when I left that that day, my checkbook contained a carbon copy with the word “colt” on the memo line for you to know who won. So I now I own a kiger mustang colt that won’t be old enough to ride for at least another 2 years. Not exactly what I was going for, but now that I have owned him for several months, there is nothing anyone could do to make me get rid of him.  Because I have him in my life, every day when I go the barn and see his adorable face, that horse crazy little girl enters my head and reminds me why I got into horses in the first place.

Photo courtesy of Doug Broyles

Originally published on Horse Nation on February 5, 2012.