My name is Tessa Kimbler. I am 10 and I am the youngest in my family. I have been going to endurance rides for six years with my family but didn't start riding until last year. I have three older sisters that all ride and that is how I get the best hand-me-downs ever.
Most of my friends don't ride horses, but the ones that have older sisters like me get lots of hand-me-downs too. Theirs are like holey jeans, dirty tennies, stained shirts, or even sports equipment like soccer balls, bikes or anything else that had to be replaced because they wore it out or outgrew it.
Since all three of my older sisters ride I get lots of great stuff. I have a whole closet full of hand-me-downs; most of the shirts have a horse on them. But it is the horse stuff that they outgrow that makes the best hand-me-downs.
When my dad and my oldest sister Kirsten first started riding we only had two horses, Winnie and Dee. We didn't get another endurance horse for my second oldest sister Kelsey to ride until the next year. Her name is Kodee Starlite or Shorty because she is short. Kelsey rode her for about two years and then she started riding our horse that used to be a show horse, Jewels.
So my sister McCamey got Shorty, and rode her for two years. Then she started riding Jewels and Kelsey started riding our friend Myna's horses Robbie, Sol and Dart.
So Shorty had become a really good baby-sitter by now. She does everything right, the vets love her, she stands still at the vet checks and trots when she is supposed to.
So finally my dad said it would be OK for me to ride her at a ride. So that is my story of how I got Shorty. She is by far the best hand-me-down any little sister ever got.
Our horses all have brightly colored tack, and Shorty's had always been bright pink. I don't really like pink a whole lot so my mom let me pick out new tack for her at the AERC convention trade show. Finally something horsey that wasn't used already! I really like all the horsey stuff I get from my sisters, I just don't like pink.
I don't know how many years I will get to ride Shorty, but we have lots of people lined up that would like to have her for their kids or grandkids because she is the best endurance rider maker ever. Others may call her a baby-sitter, but I'm not a baby anymore, I'm an endurance rider.
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