January Story Contest

Moe
By: Moeboy98
Age: 12

We were at Wendy’s eating a normal lunch. After we ordered our food, we met a lady named Lakimbra who would change my life forever. My sister,Bethany, has this amazing ability to make friends in only a few minutes. That is exactly what she did with Lakimbra’s son, Logan. We sat down with them and my mom found out she was a realtor. My dad and mom wanted to sell our house in the subdivision and move to the country, so we asked her to be our realtor. I have loved horses ever since I got my first pair of boots when I was four. My mom asked if she knew of anyone who taught horseback riding lessons. She said she had horses and offered lessons to us! I thought that would be great! She told me her lesson horse,Buddy, was injured but she had another horse I could ride.
   
A few weeks later we pulled into her driveway and saw this huge tan horse.
“I sure hope I’m not riding that horse,” I told my mom.
I got out of the car and raced as fast as I could to the front door. Lakimbra came out and introduced me to her two daughters, Bailey and Cheyenne. Lakimbra told me I was going to ride the horse Bailey rides. She walked me over to that huge horse I saw and introduced him as Moe.
“Moe is a seventeen year old, sixteen-two hand buckskin (which is a tan horse with black markings) quarter horse. I promise he will take care of you.” Lakimbra said.
“Yeah, right,” I thought.
She showed me how to groom and saddle him. After Moe was all ready, she put a bench on his left side and I climbed on him. When I was on him, I started crying when he picked up his feet to shoo the flies away. He was so big! After riding him for a while at a walk, I really liked riding him. I wanted to trot! Lakimbra said okay but when I told him to trot he just turned his big head and looked up at me with his big gentle brown eyes as if saying,
“Not just yet, you’re not ready.” After I got off and finished untacking Moe, Lakimbra asked me if I wanted to give him a treat and put him back in his pasture. Of course I said, “Yes!” I went with her to the barn to get his treats, and she pulled out a bag of burrito shells.
I looked at her and said, “Are those for Moe?”
“Yes,” said Lakimbra.  Once I was finished with Moe, we scheduled a date for me to come back for another lesson.
     

When I came back, Buddy’s hoof had healed enough so that I could ride him. He was about twenty-seven years old and very lazy, so when I wanted him to trot I had to give him a little touch of a whip to get him to go. At the end of that lesson, I put Buddy away and went to where my mom and Lakimbra were talking. My mom had said Bethany wanted to take a few lessons as well.
   
So when we came back, she rode Buddy and I rode Moe. We had so much fun together. I was so sad when I had to get off Moe. When I had just finished untacking him, Lakimbra came up and passed me a banana.
“Who is this for?” I asked. Lakimbra said,
“It’s for Moe.” When I gave it to Moe, he took it and ate the whole thing, peeling and all. After that I put him in the pasture, I turned around to go and after a few steps I heard something behind me. As soon as I turned around I saw this huge thing standing right in front of me! Moe had been following me to the gate. I turned around and walked into the pasture to see if he was really following me and not just walking to the gate to get out, and he just kept following me! When I finally left the pasture mom was talking to Lakimbra again. This time Lakimbra said she had to sell either Moe or Buddy. When mom told me this I told her I wanted Buddy. She just stood there looking at me like I was crazy. Lakimbra told me Buddy only had a few more years of riding before he would have to retire, Moe would be able to be ridden more.
     
When we went home we talked to my dad and he said we could try to buy one of them. We lived in a subdivision, so we would have to board it at her house. After some discussion we were going to try to buy Moe. We found a little green jar and put pictures of horses on it. Every time we got extra money we put it in the green jar, every penny counted. I couldn’t help but get a little exited! It was so fun to see someone walk by and put some money in the jar. After what seemed like forever, we finally had seven hundred fifty dollars. When we went to the bank to have all the money counted out and put in dollars, the cashier was exited that she was helping us get our first horse. A little while later, I had myself a new horse. I was so excited!