Fact & Fiction, it's all good!

I've been scared of doing this, and what the hell for? Who else will read me, except me, anyway? I've been writing, and writing, and WRITING for so many years, and never bothered to save any of my more brilliant/crazy thoughts. The Fictional Story of GoLightly was born about 1985. I started writing it down, in about 1989. I put it into MS Word, around 1995 or so. Sad, eh? I will add the Fiction later, I wanted to get the facts in here first.

When I was 11.5 years old, I was offered a chance to train with one of the greats, Lou Mikucki (sp?), of Ambercroft. He'd noticed me riding at a little schooling show. I was so thrilled, because he was very well-known as being a great teacher/trainer, and I know it was a huge honour. He died the next week of a heart attack. My luck with horses began early.

The real GoLightly was a 16.3 hand bright bay Irish-bred gelding, with no white anywhere. Perfect black points, he'd bleach a bit yellow in summer. He was put together perfectly, if a very small part commonly. Tons of bone, and a slight roman nose. Very wide between the eyes. He was a big, strong, well-balanced, perfectly broke, light on his feet horse, about 6 or 8 when I started riding him. He was the very picture of what a sound horse should look like. He'd been trained in Switzerland, and imported for my boss's wife as her riding horse. She had never ridden before. I taught her lessons on GoLightly, and bless him, he was so patient with her, and never tried to hurt her. He had sensible written all over his broad face. After my boss was thrown in jail for embezzlement, the horses were seized, and the trainer took over the business. GoLightly was consigned by the bank for my new trainer boss to sell. Fortunately for me, he didn't sell for almost a year and a half. I started part-leasing him then, on my meager salary. The trainer showed him, and "marketed" him, for the bank. The trainer did do me a huge favour, for he enjoyed riding the horse too, and he could see how much the horse had affected me.
I was the trainer's bread and butter money, with "my" small riding school that the trainer had inherited from my embezzling ex-boss. My top salary was $175.00 a week, for what worked out to a full-time job. I had about 75 students, by the time I'd finished building the business. I started with five students. I handed over about $2000.00+ to my trainer/boss, every month. I had only six horses, and was not allowed to use GoLightly in the school.
I had been riding at that point for almost 18 years. I was a small-potatoes riding instructor, not enough money of my own to get any trainers interested in me, not precocious enough to try and shout my talents from any rooftops. I was shy, and withdrawn, and pretty damaged from my previous experiences in the horse world. I was going to University through this time, for my B.Sc., after dropping out of high school. I was good enough to have earned the admiration of the peers I rode with, and to have impressed enough people to allow me to ride their horses' when they needed re-trained, or sold. I was a rough 'n ready rider. I had learned on mostly the rank, the dangerous and the badly broke. I knew a lot about movement, and I had a great feel for the animal, but I must have looked so unfinished to the trained eye. I earned my living by teaching others how to ride. I studied the great books, watched the great riders, learned from videos. I audited clinics whenever money allowed, which wasn't often. I rode horses no-one else would, and made them ride-able again for their owners.

My cousin, Karen Cranham, a great rider/trainer in her own right, proclaimed me a truly gifted rider, but I always felt I was missing something in my knowledge.
I didn't know what was missing, or how to "fix" it, until I rode GoLightly for the first time.