I loved horses as a kid but wasn't around them much. In about fourth grade, a new girl came to our school and a bunch of us followed her lead and took riding lessons. We were all a little bit horse crazy, but part of the fun was getting permission to wear our jodphurs and boots to school the day of our lessons.  In those times, girls HAD to wear skirts at all other times. You know how pre-teens love to be set apart -- when accompanied by a group of friends!

My tastes in horses changed over the years, depending on what was available to ride and show. I really wanted to be a girl named Judy Cohen who lived in Chicago and had a beautiful dapple grey three-gaited horse named Mistletoe Maid. The won loads of ribbons and trophies and her picture was often in a full page display in The National Horseman magazine, which I drooled over.

So here are a few examples of the kind of horses I WISHED I had more of in those days:

Get the picture? I adored these American Saddlebreds with their high-stepping ways and flashy turn-out.

But I also liked many other breeds, such as the Morgans, below.

But if I really had my druthers and could both be young and have any horse in the world, I would probably choose an Arabian. See below.

Absolutely magnificent. But for the time being, I just look at pictures and think of all the horses I used to ride, including that brown pony, a three-gaited bay, almost black, gelding named Gay Spirit (long before that had any meaning beyond a happy horse!), and others like a few hunters and a parade class black. Perhaps I will turn up some pictures when and if I get around to going through all the slides and boxes of prints and negatives.