I was young--6 or 7 probably. Justin was taking me out to the barn for the first time, just the two of us. It must have been one of the first times he had ever been out to the barn; it's safe to say that he didn't exactly know his way around a horse. Justin was 11 years older than me, and the age difference made our relationship a special one. Never a fight or misunderstanding, he was a great big brother to me. So when no one else was available to take me to PPA on an arctic December day for a lesson, Justin stepped up for his little sister. We arrived at the barn, which was unheated at the time, a less than convenient situation in blisteringly cold South Dakota. I gave Justin a quick tour around the barn, showing him everything I thought he needed to know about: all the stalls, my favorite horses, my locker, hoof picks, brushes, you know, the essentials. He smiled big at me as I showed him around, his cheeks plump and red from the bitter air. It was time to get my lesson horse out for the day. I would be riding Sergie, a red-bay purebred gelding with a gentle soul. Me and Justin retrieved him from the pasture, put him in the cross ties, and began to groom him.
"Justin, you have to brush him with the hair. And you have to get under his belly, and on his legs, and way up on top too."
He simply nodded to my young know-it-all instructions, and was a big help on the top of the back spot, which was far out my short reach. In my first years taking lessons, the pre and post riding groom took far longer than the actual lesson. But I didn't care. I loved the barn, riding, the smells, feeling soft horse hair under my fingertips, all of it. And it was great to finally bring my big brother along. Halfway through getting Sergie ready, we went into the lobby to warm up, leaving Sergie unattended for a few minutes. As you may be aware, horses don't particularly like being alone for even a moment's time, and soon, we would see that Sergie's nerves amounted to something of a mess for Justin and I. Upon returning from the lobby, we came around the corner and saw something that surprised us both--a real puzzle of a sight. A massive wet puddle, frothy in spots lay beneath Sergie, freshly sprouted in our absence. Me and Justin's eyes blew up in fright, not knowing what to say or do. I broke the silence with a naive declaration.
"Sergie threw up! He must be sick, Justin!" I was now worried about him. "We have to go tell Denise!"
"Oh. Yikes. Yes, let's go do that." Justin was worried too. He'd certainly never seen horse throw-up before.
We ran through the lobby hallway and into the other side of the barn where the main arena was. "Denise, Denise, Sergie just threw up!! You have to come quick!!" I shouted into the arena in fright. I was expecting the same sort of reaction from her that Justin and I were experiencing, however, she only blinked her eyes hard and showed a look of complete puzzlement.
"But Kara, horses can't throw up. That's not how their stomach works." She shared calmly, still taken aback by our declaration of fright. I looked up to Justin, who was just as surprised as I was. Surely that couldn't be correct, I thought.
"No, Denise, he really did! There's a big puddle under him and it looks like throw-up, I swear! Come see!"
She followed Justin and I over to Sergie's cross tie, and upon looking at the mystery puddle below his big belly, Denise couldn't help but smile big, holding back eruptions of laughter. "Yeah, that's definitely not throw-up guys."
"Hmm," Justin said. "Well, ahh, what do you suppose it is then?" He must have knew at that point what the unknown puddle was composed of, however, my young mind was still trying to wrap around the whole situation.
"Sergie peed." She simply stated, now holding a hand over her mouth to muffle the laughter.
No, certainly not, I thought. I looked at the puddle, up to a giggling Denise, and over to Justin, holding a look of embarrassment and about to break into laughter himself. Even though I was still dumbfounded with the shocking news, at least Sergie had only peed! What a relief!
"Ohh wow! We didn't know horses couldn't throw up! That's just crazy, Denise!" I said, now smiling big with relief and joy.
We were all laughing. I can guarantee that horse pee has never brought anyone so much joy as it gave us in that moment. I learned a lot that day. I learned that horses can't throw up, what horse pee looks like in a cross tie, and what a great big brother I had for helping me through it all.
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