Eventually Danielle and I would meet back up at Sandy Burback’s farm just down the road from my home. This place on the corner of West Carter and Bartlett Road, we would invade for the next few years with more memories then I could possibly recap in this one entry…but I will try none the less. I would say we were there from 1991-1997...of course Dee would go off to college at some point in there and at one point I would straddle both Burback’s farm as well as West Side while I played trainer. In those six years Danielle, Baby (her awesome little app) Fox and I would wrack up more miles than any foursome should.

We would get there early and ride in the morning, spend the day in the pool and then ride again in the afternoon (usually with Chaps over our swim suits) We would tail ride after work outs because we told ourselves it was great for these hard working horses to get out of the arena. We would set up the jumps in the lawn by the road so we could work on a “hunter course.” We would have spitting contests, both while on horseback and from the hay loft door into a traffic cone that my mother had stolen from a New Hartford road side construction crew (so that we would have a pylon to practice equitation patterns with.) We tortured poor Garrett for years. Whether he was left in my care for the weekend, or if he was just bothering us, we had more fun messing with him than anything. Fox and I helped him one season, practice for his coveted QB position in Pop Warner football. Garrett would stand center ring while I dropped my reins and trotted Fox around in the small indoor. It was in this way that he Garrett would practice hitting moving targets. That was always a lot of fun…I got to combine my two loves, horses and football!

I think Garrett learned a lot being around us, but he did not always endure happy times with us either. He did however always hold on and barely ever ran crying to the house. Our favorite times where when we would set him up on Fox’s back in a western saddle, while Danielle and I grabbed two others to ride. Then we would take off down the road. Bless his little soul…when Garrett was young he loved trail riding and always asked to come along...no matter what we did. Fox was always the weary trail horse and ALWAYS trying to graze. So tiny little Garrett would sit up there pulling and kicking, trying desperately to get Fox to follow the others. We at the same time would take off running down the road, usually West Carter. Fox would then notice he was alone and take off after us….Garrett just gripping the saddle horn for dear life. We would find a nice place to stop and wait for the dynamic duo trying to catch up and as soon as Fox would reach us and break to a big, bouncy trot…we’d take off running again. LOL. We (Danielle and I) have one very vivid memory of this common routine on a return trip from Scadden trail. Fox had wandered down into the deep ditch of West Carter (right about where the Eshe’s house is now.) and well…we took off. Fox did as well, only this time he must have felt more hungry then left behind, because as he galloped his way through the ditch, he just, kept, eating! LOL It was the funniest thing we had ever seen!

We trail rode regularly and quite often back to my house for lunch where we would leave Fox and Babe in the back yard to graze. Fox had a deep fear of mailboxes as well as cows, which is rather inconvenient when you live in Westmoreland, but he did the best he could to make it through. On one particular occasion there was a horse race designed around my parent’s home where Danielle’s saddle became unbuckled and Noelle’s brother Lance slipped underneath her and finally dropped off in my driveway. That was Awesome! LOL

My other favorite memory of trail riding was the time Danielle and I switched horses. I was galloping bare back down West Carter road on barefooted Babe. I decided to relive the Alec Ramsey on the beach moment of the Black Stallion. I stretched my arms out to the sides and began flapping them in the breeze as she ran…the light summer wind on my face. Babe was a brilliant little horse. She remembered our last trip down that stretch of road and how we had taken Scadden Trail into the woods. On this fine day, as she galloped, she kept the same bath as we had previously traveled and hung a left when she reached the trail head…Michelle flapped her way right on down West Carter Road all by herself. That one hurt.

Danielle I believe was one of the biggest driving forces behind my successful riding career. If it weren’t for her back then, I would have been nothing more than average in equitation classes. She would force us constantly into painful no stirrup marathon rides. My love for “The Horse In The Gray Flannel Suit” would drive us to be good over fences as I would have us run barrels bareback and finish over a large fence at the end of the barrel pattern. This also led to Babe’s future as a champion barrel racer…but we did not see that coming at the time. All of that was nothing though. We were so reckless on our horses. NO fear at all. We would stand on them, jump bareback with no bridles (this is done by setting jumps up all the way across the ring and cowboying them around the arena until they jumped them) We would slide off their rumps, do flips off their necks, switch horses without touching the ground, and the best, was Cowboys and Indians. She had the App, so she obviously, was the Indian, and of course Fox and I were the cowboys...Baby would always need to give us a head start however and we even once purchased white plastic grips to make it more fun. We got yelled at by Sandy once when we used her old retired and foundered! cutting horse Smoke to try and heard Babe so we could catch her. Once we discussed tying a plastic sled to the saddle horn and being pulled through the snow. I don't remember if we ever actually did it but I know it was considered. Danielle would always tease Fox unmercifully about his inability to roll all the way over. At one point he actually did pull it off, and amidst my celebration she pointed out that he was going down hill and couldn't help it! I called her just a few weeks ago when he did this magnificent move once again….but once again, he was on a hill.

All of this togetherness made best friends out of our horses as well. Fox lived beside Babe for so long that he actually caught what we affectionately referred to as “Spotted Horse Disease.” Fox at some point developed what Jennifer explained to us were called, ‘bird spots.’ I don’t know why, or where they came from, but basically they were as if he was roaning. Fox has many speckled little white spots from head to toe and we always believe it was because his best friend was an App.

We were inseparable the four of us for many, many years. We were trouble both in and out of the barn, but we had a lot of fun and were always where we were supposed to be when it was expected of us. Oddly enough, for all the time we spent together we can't seem to find any photos of the four of us together. All the times we rode the horses back to my house and left them to mow my dad's back lawn while we made Kraft Mac N' Cheese and no one ever took a picture. For all the Barneveld shows we laughed and played at...again no pictures. Where were our parents?! Why were they not on top of this?


Danielle has a new horse now and at Fairway Farm with Fox and I. Babe was given to friends when Dee went off to college and made herself a champion barrel racer. She is now retired in Brookfield.
… Garrett, you ask? LOL Well if he never has children…Danielle and I will know why. LOL
(Just kidding Garrett)