When I was around ten years old, my absolute favorite books to read were a series called 'Thoroughbred'. The first novel was about a young girl named Ashleigh and a premature filly called Wonder. No one thought Wonder would make it, but Ashleigh spent day and night in her stall, bottle feeding and taking care of her every need.
The books follow Ashleigh as she raises Wonder, starts her training, becomes a jockey, races Wonder, and then goes on to own her very own farm.
My dream when I was younger was to be Ashleigh. When I was sitting in my room reading her books, I wasn't just reading her books. I was her, living and breathing her life in each and every word of each and every book.
I vowed that when I was old enough, I was going to pack a duffel bag, take my teddy bear and buy a greyhound ticket to Kentucky. I would search until I found the biggest horse farm; a farm with a giant white mansion and hundreds of acres of rolling green hills outlined in white fence and dotted with sleek, shiny horses. I'd walk right up that long drive fenced by giant magnolia trees, but I wouldn't go up to the mansion.
No, I'd veer off onto the drive that would take me to the stables, straight to the stable manager to beg for a job. I would do anything, I would scrub grain buckets and muck stalls for years if I had to. I would prove to them what a hard worker I was. I'd advance to groom, exercise rider, then jockey and before long, I too would be the owner of my own farm. Of course, as I got older and hormones started kicking in, my dream included the hunky, hardworking, farm-inheriting son falling madly in love and asking me to marry him.
Well, I did end up marrying a hunky, hardworking farm boy!
I think it's funny how dreams change from time to time. Pieces of your dreams come true, and for the ones that don't, time will tell the reasons why. Every time I think about it, I smile and remember what big dreams I had as a little girl. I believe dreams are one of the most important things that we can have because if we don't have dreams, they can never come true.
Did you have any big dreams as a child? What were they?
I leave you with the words of Steven Tyler...
I vowed that when I was old enough, I was going to pack a duffel bag, take my teddy bear and buy a greyhound ticket to Kentucky. I would search until I found the biggest horse farm; a farm with a giant white mansion and hundreds of acres of rolling green hills outlined in white fence and dotted with sleek, shiny horses. I'd walk right up that long drive fenced by giant magnolia trees, but I wouldn't go up to the mansion.
No, I'd veer off onto the drive that would take me to the stables, straight to the stable manager to beg for a job. I would do anything, I would scrub grain buckets and muck stalls for years if I had to. I would prove to them what a hard worker I was. I'd advance to groom, exercise rider, then jockey and before long, I too would be the owner of my own farm. Of course, as I got older and hormones started kicking in, my dream included the hunky, hardworking, farm-inheriting son falling madly in love and asking me to marry him.
Well, I did end up marrying a hunky, hardworking farm boy!
I think it's funny how dreams change from time to time. Pieces of your dreams come true, and for the ones that don't, time will tell the reasons why. Every time I think about it, I smile and remember what big dreams I had as a little girl. I believe dreams are one of the most important things that we can have because if we don't have dreams, they can never come true.
Did you have any big dreams as a child? What were they?
I leave you with the words of Steven Tyler...
Dream On.
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