This blog entry is Part 1 of a multipart series.
I think every horse kid dreams of having a stable full of horses of every breed and colour. I know I did. I had a best friend growing up who's name was Nicola, she too was a serious horse girl. Unlike me, she grew up on a farm and both of her parents were horse vets. Her sister, Clair, was just as crazy about horses as the rest of the family. I was horse crazy but at the time I was living on the outskirts of downtown Toronto without a horse and a sad excuse for a backyard. The kids at my school were not horse kids, and instead shamed me for my passion, which led me to cherish my weekends with Nicola even more. We went to pony club, polo, and field hunted together. Her family would lend me their horses and weekend sleepovers became a regular thing. During these sleep overs, three things would happen:
We would always play 'horse' with poor Clair who was 6 years younger than me always stuck as the rider
We would steal Nicola's dads computer and list all the horses we wanted to own in the future with their colours, breeds, names, and disciplines (We were convinved we wanted to co-own a riding barn with a ton of horses, never marry, and also have a dog sledding business with every breed of dog)
We would play with Breyers for hours in the living room
Those last two points always stuck with me. I've mentioned before that my first Breyer was a Cody ranger horse in dapple grey. I mentioned I got him as a present from a tack store at a barn I rode at. I never mentioned that I didn't actually know what a Breyer was until many years later when I met Nicola. I think other than Cody, Nicola was the main reason I got into Breyers and later on model horse collecting (though getting into the hobby was really a fluke on it's own). I really did want to carry on the dream of owning unlimited horses with their own colours, breeds, names, and disciplines. The only difference between us was that I never grew out of that fantasy.
Even as I grew older, and I was already 3 years older than Nicola, these memories stuck with me. I went on to high school and eventually moved away to a private boarding school, I also turned a little too dark for Nicola's preference and we started to pull away from each other. Three years later when she went onto high school, she got a full scholarship at another prestigious boarding school downtown. We drifted into our own worlds; me full of teen angst, hard music, and dreams of androgynous men with lots of tattoos. Her full of makeup, Wall Street, and drinking parties. When we did finally reunite sometime later in high school, things were awkward and didn't click. Our friendship ruined by adulthood. We turned our separate ways and haven't seen each other since.
I know for a fact that Nicola, now goes by the name Kaitlin, and is still very into horses. She got a full sports scholarship at a prestigious American university and has travelled as far as England to play polo. I know her parents are still vets. I know her sister is still horse crazy and actively riding. I have no idea if she knows about any aspects of my life like the racehorses, model horses, or that I'm even still alive. However, even with all that I can safely say that Nicola, the old Nicola, is still one of my most cherished friends who really built the platform I am standing on.
So thank you Nikki, I know you're not going to read this, but you were the first stepping stone towards this grand adventure. The adventure of Iero.
This series will be continued.
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