A Girl's Gotta Dream

I still remember the times I would wander through the country side as a small girl, half in a dream, and imagine riding a horse instead of walking. Sometimes, I'd run as fast as I could, just to feel my hair blow back. If I found a downed tree, I'd sit on it as if it was a horse and allow myself to go deeper into my imagination.

One day, I went with a friend and her family down to an old farm in Pennsylvania. Back in those days, you could see miles of rock wall fences and farms without indoor plumbing. It was an amazing old place. It was falling apart and in horrible disrepair and I loved it. Once you maneuvered around the hole in the entrance way, there was a huge room filled with old photos and furniture, and it smelled of hundreds of years of history. It wasn't difficult for my imagination to take me back to the 1800's while at that farm, and I was living my dreams.

But, what caught my breath in my chest was this man that rode up on a big, dancing, sweating black horse when we pulled into the farm's driveway. The horse was on fire, its feet danced, the nostrils flared red inside, and the man sat that awesome horse like it was nothing. Just new to my training bra, I fell into my first crush with a bang. The sight of that horse and the man riding it was worth years of fantasies and dreams.

A few years later, I rode that horse. If you handled her with a heavy hand, she'd jig herself into that same sweating tizzy every time. When I got on her, her head dropped like an old nag and she plodded along like she was half asleep. I've always had soft hands, though I didn't know it back then, and I was a little disappointed that she didn't act all fiery for me.

Still, the Knight in Shining Armor dream was one I could swear existed in reality. I saw it with my own eyes! One day, a man on a huge horse would take me back to my fantasies and dreams. I'd hear the clank of the bit, the squeak of the leather, I'd smell the warmth of the horse and feel its power as the wind would blow through my hair.

Oh yes, that would be worth shaving my legs for...