Pepsi, more than just a soda pop!

I grew up in a Michigan farm community.
My playtime was experienced by:

• Outdoor play with friends
• Riding my bicycle on dirt trails and hills
• Exploring the old barn and farmland of my grandparents farm
• Feeding their chickens
• Going to the local stockyards, letting all the cows out
  and herding them into one big pen. Little did I know,
  they were strategically corralled for the next auction
• Most of all, pretending I had a horse.
  I longed for a horse.

Both my parents worked in Michigan’s capital city, Lansing.
They had a long commute to and from work.
The day came….we had to move to the big city.

I was going into the 8th grade
and leaving all my friends behind.

Soon after moving,
my parents said I could have a horse.

I was elated.
I did not care that it had to be boarded 2 miles away and
I would need to walk there daily to take care of it.

The day came, when my dad and I went to look at horses.
He pointed out different ones to me…
but my eye was on a dark caramel colored one….
way off in the distance.
All alone….half starved.
You could count its ribs. 😦 I had to have that one!

The stable owner told me she was a 2 year old quarter horse.
Never been ridden.
I would need to fatten her up, before ever riding.
I was okay with that.
I needed her.
She needed me.

I named her Pepsi.

photos by dad early 1970’s – me riding Pepsi

I fattened her up.
Groomed her often.
Got her ‘acquainted’ to the saddle.
She was a good horse, except for one thing.

She hated to be ridden!

She’d run under low branches
or roll in the pond, to rid me from her back.
As soon as she managed to get me out of saddle,
she ran back to the barn, leaving me to walk.
(I know she was laughing….)

When riding with friends,
she would trot to their canter.
What a rough ride!

Long story short….
Pepsi was not a Quarter Horse.
She was a Standardbred.
A trotter.
She would have been much happier hooked-up to a cart.
She despised the saddle with a passion.

Needless to say, I soon sold Pepsi,
and got on with my teenage life in the big city.

ren