#17 A Horses Parts...

The requests came often.

Regularly we had been receiving requests from children's groups to host tours of our facilities. We finally decided to do so.

Our first group were junior girl guides, called Brownies, and they arrived in a multiple car caravan.

In the parking lot, car doors opened and out rushed twenty little girls, all between 8 and 10 years of age, accompanied by an appropriate number of adults. 

Is was the most daunting thing I've ever seen.

Although trained as an instructor, I was accustomed to adults. All these eager little faces were a new experience for me. I had to admit that they scared the life out of me.

In unsuppressed excitement the little girls milled about in our entrance yard. The twenty seemed like a thousand.

In preparation for their visit and tour, I created handouts. Something to take home and both relive this experience and to remember it as well. My handout was a picture of a horse in black and white outline, designed for the girls to color. The picture also had the various "parts" of a horse marked upon it.

For some reason unknown to me... all horse people were obsessed with the parts of a horse and I... following my training, passed this on to the little girls. Words like... gaskin, hock, fetlock and forelock, were marked for the girls to learn.

To further bring the point home to the little girls and to make the picture come to life... I decided to be clever. I paid dearly for this cleverness in the months to come.

I brought out a very gentle gelding for the girls to actually touch and pat. He was a big bay and loved little kids. He patiently allowed their touches and I'm sure converted many into "horse crazy" adolescents in later years.

My big mistake was at first a big success. To bring my lecture about horses to life, I thought it would be a great idea to write the parts of a horse on the horse itself. The girls loved it... they could actually see what I was talking about and it made everything much more personal.

I was so very clever, I thought!

Finally the kids, all happily chattering and with their compliment of grinning adults, got in the car caravan and drove away.

My chest puffed with pride... my first lecture was a great success!

I took the big gelding back to the corrals but first I wanted to brush off the names I'd written all over him.

"Ohhhh no,"  I muttered.... "Oh nooooo."

In my excitement at this the first of many lectures to children, I'd written the parts of the horse in permanent marker.

My horse now had his "parts" written everywhere and his parts were permanent.

I don't know if the horse was bothered or even cared, but I did. I was red faced and humbled.

A few days later a letter came in the mail. The little girls had a wonderful time, it said, and they sent a thank you card. On it was drawn a picture of the horse.... with all his many parts.

Time would cure my misdeed as time often does. My horse of many parts finally shed his winter hair, reveling a blank canvas beneath.