A Horse of Course

I am at my core a horse person. People who aren't horse people might like horses and go for rides on vacations. A horse person though probably could be clinically diagnosed with something. However, psychologists tend to balk at calling something a disorder when millions suffer from it worldwide.

Well, the fact is, if you are a horse person and have a horse, you aren't suffering. You're quite happy. If you're a horseless horse person the daily pain is impossible to explain to those who don't suffer from this affliction.

When I left the United States to work in South Korea, I left my horses behind. I did it because I thought it would lead me back to horses in a better way. It sucks making minimum wage and being simultaneously horse poor. That's because you have the horse but you can't afford the gas to trailer the horse to the trails to go riding. Or if you like showing, you can't afford the entry fees. Whatever you're in horse poor misery which means you give your horse lots of baths and braid his or her tail and make him pretty a lot and generally enjoy your horse time. If you own a horse trailer it's rusty and if you own a truck it's 20 years old. But it's lovely. But much wealthier people are also horse poor. More than half their income goes into trucks and trailers and entry fees and the x number of horses they have, never mind you can only ride one at a time. That means when horse people get together they have a common understanding regardless of socio- economic standing.

Horse people understand what it means to spend all the money you have and don't have on horses and indulge in jokes like "you might be a horse person if you have to remove the hay from your hair before work."

Well, all this is a long way to say I am now the co-owner of a horse. 말 (mal) is horse in Korean. 말 Also means words which can make searching the internet for 말 nearly impossible. Horseback riding is called 승마 (seungma) Riding is about $30.00 for half an hour and varies from the there. I mentioned before that horses in Korea are often skinny.

The stable in Bongwha has horses that aren't skinny. Unfortunately, they kept selling the horses I was riding there and sometimes didn't have a horse for me. Boarding a horse, that is paying for the care and upkeep of horses is called hotel in Korean. Board generally starts at about  $1000 a month but varies more often toward the expensive side. One bale of hay in Korea costs about $20.00.  

Luckily, I'm paying half of $550, though I could technically swing the full board. My horse's name is Superman. He was named by my friend's son. His registered name, the horse not my friend's son, is 그라지오 (Grageo) which is Italian translated to English translated to Korean. It might mean to pardon/ to reprieve but a lot was probably lost in all those translation. He won about $113,000 during his race Korea.