First childhood memory

Given my lifelong obsession with horses, my first actual childhood memory understandably involved horses. As an adult, I remember asking my mother about it, thinking it might have been a dream of some kind but although she couldn't believe I remembered it, with the detail I remembered, she figured out when and where it happened.

They lived in an apartment in Billings, Montana for a short period of time. Dad had been released from the hospital after 18 months of treatment for tuberculosis and was working there as an accountant, having been told he should never do hard physical labor again. I was not quite 3 years old at the time and until then, my mother and I had been at the family ranch, where I had lots of room to play.

Mom walked with me during that summer to keep me occupied and since the apartment was close to the edge of town, we used to walk in the "country" where I could see animals, as I was used to. There was a pasture with two horses where we walked and naturally, I wanted to pet the horses.

Eventually my mother met the owner, an older man who had retired, along with his last two saddle horses. She convinced him that as a ranch girl, she knew what to do around horses, so on many afternoons that summer, I ended up sitting on the back of one of the patient horses.

I very vividly remember the two horses, one bay and one gray and remember being lifted to the back of the bay horse and sitting there in absolute delight. Mother said she remembered I would lean forward and lay my cheek against the mane, putting my hands down and patting the horse's neck, lisping "niiiiice horsie!"