How I Met Ace. . .
Long before I bought my first horse, Ace, I was totally obsessed with The Black Stallion. About as obsessed as a horse-crazy kid can be. The Black was my idol, and it was my dream to own a horse exactly like him. You must understand though that I knew literally nothing about riding or taking care of a horse, as I had lived in the city all of my childhood thus far. I had, however, taken a few riding lessons at a nearby stable, so I just figured I knew it all! I could walk and trot on an old, placid lesson horse and even control it out on the trails as it ambled along, so why wouldn't I be able to handle a wild stallion? But, of course, if my horse was like the Black, then he'd be nice to me but wouldn't let anyone else ride him, right? At the time, I was convinced this was true, but we all know how wrong I was!
In 1995, when I was 13 years old, we moved to a small town where me and my sister started weekly riding lessons and joined a 4-H Light Horse Club. Throughout the winter I rode a fat, stubborn horse who bucked when he didn't want to do something. But I learned one invaluable lesson that would come in handy later on - how to sit the buck!
In the spring I started searching the endless pages of classifieds for horses for sale. It was quite easy for me to look through them since I was looking for a black, Arabian gelding, like the Black (by this time, I had at least learned that a stallion isn't a kid's horse!). Well, I found out that there aren't very many horses that match that description. And if there was, I needed at least 10 grand for a yearling! So, not surprisingly, the first horse I looked at was a small, grey Arab mare. My parents and instructor thought she'd make a great horse for me but when we got her vet-checked, we sadly found out she had melanoma (skin cancer) :(
One day when I was scanning the classifieds once again, a pic of a flashy, black Arab gelding with four perfect white socks, a snip and a star, caught my attention. He was a coming 10-year-old, 15.2 HH, who excelled in show hack with dressage potential. Asking $3,500. He sounded like the perfect horse, my dream horse! As it turned out, when we phone about Ace, I was even more convinced he was the perfect horse. He was the son of the Black Stallion!! (actually, Ace's sire played one of the doubles in the Black Stallion movie-he was the horse who ran the races-so technically he is sorta the son of the Black). So we went to test ride Ace. When I first saw him, I was so astounded by his beauty, that I didn't notice that he was steaming and soaked with sweat! (I must have been pretty blind!). Which is probably why he went so beautifully when I rode him. So that same day, we bought him and took him to my riding instructor's, where he was to be boarded.