#18 Childhood dreams come true. Big beast.

Meet Moose. Beastie. AKA Renaldo.

My little pony! After a few twenty something years of feeling somewhat directionless in my personal life, I decided that I should go on a quest to either take up hobbies that I had left behind (and missed) or start doing things that I always said that I wanted to do. A big one was to take up riding. I grew up riding on my Aunt's horse farm in Cranston. About two years ago, I got a chance to start taking lessons. It was really fun getting back into it, this time with a better, adult perspective on the relativity of perfection...

After a year of taking lessons, the owner of my favorite lesson steed offered me a deal and before I knew it, I was had my very first horse: Renaldo. An 11 year-old German, born and bred, Westphalian. Renaldo's claim to fame: he's huge. 18 hands at the withers. That means he is 6 feet tall at the shoulder. When he puts his head up in the air he can clear 7.5 feet easy. Big dude.

Some of Renaldo's favorite things in life:
1. bananas
2. all other things edible
3. getting scratched on the face
4. being done with work
5. rolling in a pile of fresh shavings
6. rolling in the mud
7. annoying other horses
8. chewing on anything in reach of his stall that isn't meant to be chewed on

Less favorite things in life:
1. hard work
2. loud noises
3. steam monsters
4. getting scratched on the belly
5. not getting treats in a timely fashion
6. being ignored
7. being confused
8. new places, things, sites, or really anything unexpected.

That's right. He's a bit of a pea brain. But he's a handsome devil and I am pretty lucky to spend sunny afternoons going for a ride and spoiling him rotten. Facing passions that have been put on hold is pretty scary but I am so glad that I took on this particular challenge.