登陆注册
6971700000013

第13章 生活的拯救者 (1)

Horses Saved My Life

佚名 / Anonymous

I’m standing in my ranch’s arena, watching 14-year-old Mia ride her horse, Leo. As her trainer, I’m gratified to see the way she connects with the horse, the way she can sense his moods and divine his capabilities. To ride well means to have an inner radar, an ability to understand what the animal feels. I see it with Mia and the other teen girls who ride at my ranch, because I’ve always had a special connection with horses myself. To me, they’re kindred spirits. In fact, discovering this sixth sense within myself did more than help me become an accomplished horsewoman. It saved my life.

I was born in 1961 with a rare facial abnormality. My lower face was totally disfigured. My childhood was difficult, marked by constant surgeries and by the insensitivity of other kids. But at age four my parents put me on a horse to help me with my balance (having only one ear canal led people to believe balance would be a problem for me), and today I see my birth defects as a gift. It forced me to reach into my soul and allowed me to focus on what I love to do more than anything: ride.

From the beginning, I found that being around horses provided my greatest source of solace. At four, my grandfather bought me a little donkey named Sultan. Although Sultan seldom budged, I spent many hours just happily sitting on his back. I began riding horses soon after and at age six I started competing. I joined the Pony Club and took as many lessons as my parents could afford. I became almost obsessive about riding; it was my greatest escape. Around horses, I never felt self-conscious or different.

Meanwhile, school was another story. In kindergarten, often bandaged, I endured lots of ridicule. I remember kids making fun of me and staring. I’d beg my parents not to make me go, but they always stood firm. Caring and amazingly supportive, they didn’t want other people’s meanness to drive me into isolation. Though I’m sure it broke their hearts to see me come home in tears, they always made me feel that they understood my pain.

By third grade my classmates had learned to get beyond my awkward appearance and to accept me, bandages, wires and all. From then on, I don’t think there was one birthday party I wasn’t invited to. After sixth grade, my surgery schedule slowed. My peers saw me as just one of them: I was voted president of my class every year. In ninth grade, after I had my last major reconstructive surgery, doctors still wanted to build up my chin and finish my ear. But by then I felt somewhere between comfortable and indifferent about the way I looked, and I decided against any further procedures. I’d have an obvious asymmetry in my face, but I had determined that it would in no way affect how I’d live my life.

That attitude certainly helped when a new boy, Charlie White, transferred into my school. Charlie claimed that I made him chase me for a year before I’d go out with him, and he said he could feel so comfortable with me because I felt so comfortable with myself—and we stayed together even when he went away to Montana State University on a football scholarship. If it was up to me, my post-graduate plans would have been all about riding, but my parents believed college was crucial. After graduating from the University of California at San Diego with degrees in biology and history, I was offered a graduate fellowship to study history at Georgetown University. But Charlie had other ideas: He suggested that we start a horse ranch on my parents’ land instead.

We opened Diamond Mountain Stables in 1983. I began competing professionally, but also giving lessons and conducting clinics and camps. Almost twenty years later, I still teach and compete, and ten people now work for us full time, as trainers, groomers and administrators. Forty horses, most of which belong to clients, reside in our stables—we joke that Diamond Mountain is like a boarding school, with 40 little kids who are constantly getting sick, getting loose or getting hurt.

同类推荐
  • 涡堤孩(双语译林)

    涡堤孩(双语译林)

    《涡堤孩》是德国作家莫特·福凯创作的经典童话Undine,又名《水妖记》,它被认为是德国后期浪漫主义文学的代表作。童话讲述了生来没有灵魂的水之精灵涡堤孩与骑士之间的凄美爱情故事。痴恋于骑士的涡堤孩为爱情宁愿舍弃不老容颜与永恒的生命,与骑士结成婚姻,然而却遭遇骑士爱情的背叛,最后化为泉水环绕爱人坟边。《涡堤孩》插图由19世纪末英国出版黄金时代著名的插画大师亚瑟·拉克姆于1909年绘制,他的作品风格奇异瑰丽,创造的形象分外鲜明:老树虬曲苍劲,矮人阴险恶毒,妖灵妩媚妖娆,将文字中的奇幻氛围展现得淋漓尽致。
  • LivinginChina

    LivinginChina

    ManyChinesefeelliketheyareonanotherplanetwhentheyvisitforeigncountriesofcompletelydifferentcultures.ProbablythesameistruetoforeignerswhovisitChina.
  • 双语学习丛书-政坛要人

    双语学习丛书-政坛要人

    流淌心灵的隽语,记忆的箴言,在双语的世界里,感受英语学习的乐趣,体会英语学习的奥妙,提高英语学习的能力!丛书包括:爱的交融、财富精英、成长课堂、醇香母爱、父爱如山、故乡情怀、节日趣闻、快乐心语、浪漫往昔等故事。
  • Songs of a Savoyard

    Songs of a Savoyard

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 《新编大学英语①》词汇突破记忆

    《新编大学英语①》词汇突破记忆

    本书根据《新编大学英语①》(浙江大学编著,外语教学与研究出版社出版)教材编写,包含课内阅读和课后阅读的所有词汇、词组,并给出同义、反义、考点、例句、辨析。编写本书的目的是提倡学生在句子中记忆单词,以便快速突破词汇关。书中每个单元都设有同步测试题,书后有词汇自测题3套,供学生自我检测。对于使用《新编大学英语①》教材的学生,本书不失为一本有助于强化理解、联想记忆、方便实用的学习辅导书。
热门推荐
  • 我的老婆来自英雄联盟

    我的老婆来自英雄联盟

    琴女,女枪,九尾妖狐,阿卡丽,雷欧娜……一个都不能少。末世法则:无人权,无道德,无法律,最重要的,别他吗谈感情。末世当中,活下去,才是最重要的。末世之中,我不想当英雄,却不想失去自己最后的人性。丧尸遍野,动物异变,法律崩塌,道德沦丧,兽性的血腥,善与恶的抉择!要想生存,唯有搏命!且看我如何带着一群女英雄,在这末日当中求生!乌鸦出品,人品保证,此书绝对纯洁……真的,不信你揍我!
  • 双生姐妹:凰倾天下

    双生姐妹:凰倾天下

    青莲大陆,以武为尊。传闻南王府两位小姐天生废柴,却不曾想,世事难料,没有绝对!有了武功,接下平乱使命;灵武共修,谁敢叫板?!栽赃陷害?想都表想!先回家练个三五八年,手段高明点再来!看我不顺眼想杀我?行啊,先拿你试试刀!会的不多又怎样?学不就得了。小爷最不缺的就是志气!哦?谁都不待见?后悔死你们!什么王妃,什么嫡兄,碍事的,统统滚吧!把你们那堆破烂都收起来,消停点,秘诀在手天下我有!废柴?看废柴把你们都给虐成渣!
  • 起奏I千界灭神序

    起奏I千界灭神序

    药,亦可治人也可杀人。正,可救天下苍生!邪;可毁世间万物!习的世间医人术,横走人间毒人心。修《九转毒神录》《天海医佛心》,习天下毒阵攻杀防术,横行世间!救该救之人,执该做之事,除该屠之恶。我秋书涯亦是天使亦是恶魔!
  • 子午岭

    子午岭

    三国是一个社会动荡而又混乱的时期,在门阀、财团、兵勇的相互交织中,历史在这里演绎出了难以用语言描述的故事,研究和挖掘他们之间的关系,对于今天的我们也许就是一本非常美妙的小说
  • 长戚客栈

    长戚客栈

    历史厚厚的迷雾尘封无数真相。每当星火阑珊,草木跳萤时,长戚客栈里,又来了一个讲故事的亡魂,层层迷雾,在这所特殊的亡魂驿所,被慢慢拨开。
  • 花都妖孽

    花都妖孽

    一失身成千古恨,顶级杀手生涯结束了。小日子总要过,林旭只身一人来到了美女如云的香城,美妙的日子开始了。性感到骨子里的老板娘,火辣妖娆大小姐,神秘冷艳女特工,寂寞空虚美人妻,绝色美人纷至沓来,浪迹花丛妙手嬉春。
  • 棱空异境

    棱空异境

    高维度的文明,对低维度文明的死后收集,并以另一种方式投入到另一平行宇宙,宇宙中各物质的能量是守恒的,我们称这高维度文明叫镜,他们的工作十分严谨,可是再严谨也会有疏忽的时候,因一个小小的差错,从而引起一宇宙的异变,到底会带来什么。。。。。。
  • 蚩尤无方

    蚩尤无方

    穿越文,无敌文,无敌的主角,无敌的蚩尤。
  • 阴奴

    阴奴

    我从不相信世间有鬼神之说,直到有一天我深陷其中,无处躲藏。
  • 给予的力量:通往成功和快乐之路

    给予的力量:通往成功和快乐之路

    本书阐述了给予如何给我们的心灵带来平静和快乐并改善人际关系。无论您是企业家还是专业人士或者是想发展自己的事业和提高生活水平的普通人,本书都对您有吸引力。每个人天生都希望能感受快乐。本书提供了很多方法,通过给予自己和他人来达到感受快乐的目的。