Zorthian extra

When I was eight years old I attended an unconventional local day camp called Zorthian Ranch for Children.

The camp had a lot of different activities, but I only cared about one, and I cared about that one a lot.

I spent every day hanging out at the riding ring, begging for rides. By the end of the summer, I had ridden no less than seven horses. They were Anahid, who was my favorite,

Tonka, the shetland pony,

sweet Ladybug,

Ladybug's son, Ahab...

and three I don't have pictures of - Dos, Margaret and Silhouette. I have only the haziest memory of the first two, but Silhouette... well, he was important.

Silhouette's story begins on the one day of camp when I did not ride. I was slow making my way to the ring that day, and when I got there, all the horses were gone. I found a counselor and asked her where the horses were.

"They went on a trail ride," she said cheerfully. "They won't be back until the end of the day."

"But... When do I get ride?"

"Not today! Maybe go play volleyball instead?"

Of course, I did not play volleyball. I'm pretty sure I went to the bathroom and cried. The rest of my day was split between the arts room and the horse pasture, where I fed Anahid many, many handfuls of grass and cried some more.

It was terrible.

After that, I made sure to be at the ring first thing every day, which was a good thing because there was another trail ride the next week. Once again, there were more interested campers than there were available horses. Everyone who wanted to ride had to pick a number and hope. By the time they got to me, there was only one horse left.

Never have I felt so much pressure to make a perfectly accurate random guess.

I said a little prayer in my head and chose the number seven.

God must have been listening, because that was exactly the right choice. I was boosted up onto a tall, dark bay, ex-racehorse named Silhouette, and we hit the trail.

Not Silhouette, but how I remember him

I don't remember much about the ride itself other than it was long and wonderful. Silhouette was livelier than the other horses I'd ridden, and we did a fair amount of unauthorized trotting. I loved every moment. It was the Best Day of My Life, at least until the day I rode Anahid.