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The Tidal Wave of My Lifetime
Horse Fever
“Yet when books have been read, it boils down to the horse, his human companion, and what goes on between them.” -Walter Farley.
Horse fever swept through me like a tidal wave when I was young. Of course, at the time, I didn’t know it would last for the duration of my life.
Once the fever struck, there was no going back. Suddenly, at age seven, I was desperate to get my hands on anything related to horses. My parents knew nothing about horses, yet they tried to indulge my obsession by buying me a few of the Breyer Horse Models, which never left my side. By age thirteen, I had read the entire collection from the Walter Farley series, The Black Stallion, and watched every movie known to man about horses. Still, my greatest dream was to have my horse someday.
Unfortunately, while growing up in Los Angeles, there wasn’t a single horse in sight unless we traveled forty-five minutes to the other side of the San Fernando Valley, which I called horse country.
My Dad, a child psychiatrist, and I had a special relationship. He was either secretly amused over my horse obsession and wanted to analyze my behavior or loved my enthusiasm and wanted to help me as much as possible. We also enjoyed spending time together. When it came to the horse situation, my dad and I had developed a unique…
