Horsemanship Merit Badge

The next badge I would like to talk about is the Horsemanship merit badge. I enjoyed that one, because it talks about how to take care of a horse and ride a horse.

Now I'm going to tell you a story about how I earned it. It started off when I was like eleven. We have a neighbor in our ward that has a horse farm. Her name is Brenda. She owned horses. Now she only earns one horse, because some of her horses have got sick and died, like her very nice black horse named Lucky. Lucky was her horse that I used to earn the badge.

One of her daughters taught me everything on how to take care of Lucky by learning basic steps on how to clean dirt out of his horseshoes. And this is one of the most hateful things to do. It was to scoop all their poop out off the horse yard. Then I got to learn how to brush his fur and mane. It wasn't very bad as scooping the poop and cleaning the dirt off his shoe. Then the best part was to learn how to saddle up a horse and make sure it's put on snugged so it wouldn't slip off. Then we took him out in the yard and then I got to ride him. Then I learned on how to say things to control the horse while riding. I clicked my lips to make him go. Then I pulled the reigns to the right to make him turn right and then left to make him turn left and then I give him a kick in the stomach to make him go faster. Then the best part was to say "Whoa!" to make him stop.
The riding was the most fun part on Horsemanship. Then I had to learn how to feed Lucky by giving him a bowl full of grass and then how to feed him a carrot or apple. All those times with Lucky were wonderful, until his death this year. It was still sad to hear about Lucky's death, but Lucky and I used to be best friends when I was working on this badge, but some of those times, I got a chance to see him by riding my bike past Brenda's house and wave to him and his horse buddies. The Horsemanship Badge was a very fun one, especially riding on Lucky. Until next time, I will tell you what the next badge was really fun. I really liked the Horsemanship Badge. I love you, Lucky, good old times.