Acorn Trees in My Piece of Heaven

by Sharleen Shields

My story starts out just like every other little girl that dreams of horses.  I read every book on the subject that I could get my hands on - including, every single copy of The Black Stallion books.  I watched every episode of every show on television that had a horse in it.  If there was a horse in a movie...I saw the movie.  Not surprisingly, I could tell you more about the horses in the old Western movies than I could about any of the characters or the plot. 

During my entire childhood years, I would do what ever needed to be done...cleaning, grooming, stall cleaning - you name it, just to be around them.  A close friend of the family, Cheryl, owned a horse and exercised horses for other people.  We shared a love for horses and she encouraged my obsession daily.  She gave me all her old horse figurines, horse books, magazines and invited me over to groom and ride.  I was the luckiest girl ever!

During the summer break from school, my parents sent me to a church camp in the Palomar Mountains.  As you may have guessed, I was always at the stables offering to help and getting to know everyone that took care of the horses.  I knew each and every horse by name and enjoyed learning their individual personalities.  I loved just being near them and taking in all they had to offer my life.  I was often in trouble for missing camp events, but it was always worth it.

The trail rides at camp were my piece of heaven.  To earn the extra money necessary to sign up for the rides, I would do extra chores at home and did odd-jobs like ironing, weeding and babysitting (kids and animals) for our neighbors.  The work came easy as I dreamed of riding horses among the oak and pine trees.  Of course, at the time, I really didn't know the name of the oak trees.  I just knew that there were acorns everywhere, so they were acorn trees to me.

Since there were a limited number of horses and days to ride, they budgeted me only two rides per week.  However, after everyone who wanted to ride that day had signed up, they would allow me to add my name for more rides!  Over the years, the staff at the camp trusted me to be the 'second' person to help out with the horses and other kids during trail rides.  There wasn't a horse I didn't know, or wouldn't ride - even if they spooked other people.  I would gladly trade the person for the horse I was riding, so everyone would enjoy their time.  I couldn't believe there was anything better than going for a trail ride among the acorn trees!

During the years that followed my wonderful childhood summers, I worked on my schooling and my career, but never lost sight of my goal to own a horse some day.  I knew that horses would not come cheap and I needed a good job to support one.  The places I chose to live were close to where people owned horses - all in the Southern California area.  It took me a few years to be able to afford just the horse property, but I finally moved to Norco, California.