110 degrees magazine - Index

110 degrees magazine - magazine - Index

BLOOM I PERSONA
I went to a stable on Ocean Beach. They were
building Lakeshore Subdivision at the time. I loved
to ride over the sand dunes that were destined
soon to be covered over by the new buildings.
They had set up small surveyor flags for the subdivision,
which I would yank out, as though grabbing
for the golden ring on a merry-go-round.
I was neither rebelling nor acting up. I was
just ignorant about the harm I was doing; I was
simply having a good time.
74 www.110mag.com September/October 2008
“EACH DAY I PASS AMONG THESE HORSES
AND MY HEART IS STIRRED ONCE AGAIN BY
HOW THEY REJOICE AT MY COMING.”
Our urban existence made owning dogs difficult
when I was young but we did have a succession
of cats — most of them seemed to be
named Tuffy.
I married Dean Garrison when I was 17 years old.
He was a Coast Guardsman stationed on a buoy
tender. He put in for a lighthouse keeper’s job so
he could spend more time with his bride. From
the first year of marriage our home became a
haven for a number of dogs and cats.
We were stationed at a series of
lighthouses for most of the subsequent
20 years of his career. Our
first station was at Point Bonita,
which is located right off the Marin
Headlands near the Golden Gate.
I really got into pets while at Point
Bonita. Our first puppy was a little
black-and-white terrier mix that was
born at the station. We called him
Pudgy, and he was a great dog. We
had him for ten years until his
kidneys gave out and we had to put
him down. It was a heartbreaking
loss; I still remember the pain.
RUNNING WITH
HORSES
We got back into horses for the
therapeutic effect that caring for a
horse provides for a young person.
My daughter, Sherry, had begun
running with the wrong crowd in
high school so we bought her a little
Appaloosa gelding named Apache.
Sherry was as much a horse nut
as her mom. We both agree with
Emerson’s comment,
Riding a horse is not a gentle
hobby, to be picked up and laid
down like a game of Solitaire. It
is a grand passion.
Sherry got Apache when he was two and they
spent the next 30 years together. Their first horse
show provided some hysterical moments for spectators.
The show was sponsored by the
Metropolitan Horseman’s Association (MHA) and
was held at the Sequoia Arena in the Oakland Hills.
Apache had never experienced anything like
that. He was a very intelligent animal and curious
about all the new sights that surrounded him. He
was so distracted that he almost walked over the
edge of a cliff. It was impossible to get him
focused on the fences he was to jump. This was
long before cell phone cameras but the two of
them that day would have made a wonderful
YouTube video.
Nevertheless, Sherry was caught up in the
magic of horses and shows, thrilled by the experience,
and oblivious to the comedic elements
that she had been an unwitting part of. We stayed
up talking until the wee hours as she recounted
the events of that thrilling day.
Six months after getting Apache we bought a
Thoroughbred mare, named Beau, that was going
to be Sherry’s upscale show horse. Beau was sold
to us as a jumper but turned out to be fearful of
anything to do with gates or with the activity of
jumping over them.
By the time we had become convinced of Beau’s
limitations, I had grown so attached to the animal
that I couldn’t bear to let her go, so I used her for
breeding, thinking that I could earn some money
selling her offspring.
Beau eventually produced four horses — a colt
and three fillies. My scheme to make money
came to nothing, however, since I could never
part with the mares. I subsequently sold the colt
back to the owners of the stallion for a fire-sale
price simply because I wanted him to have a
good home.
Sherry continued to show Apache and several
other horses that we sponsored. Apache enjoyed
horse shows. He loved to show off. He was no