Hello, my name is Anne Marie Wells and I am one of this year’s recipients of the Fortenberry Family Reunion scholarship. My grandparents are Neal and Shirley Fortenberry. My mom is their youngest daughter, Cindy. My dad is retired military, so before we came back and settled down in Wise County we moved all over the States. We used to come visit my grandparents in Greenwood all the time. One of my most interesting memories about visiting was when I was about 4 yrs old and it involved a horse and a wild ride.
Grandma and Grandpa used to have this old Pinto horse name Simone. Growing up, my sister, Jodie, and I loved horses. Now, Simone didn’t get ridden very often, but he was a horse that could be ridden, so one time when we were visiting Grandpa and Mom took Jodie and I to go ride Simone. Jodie went first. They saddled up that horse and plopped Jodie up there. Grandpa gave Jodie the reins and then led her and Simone around the pasture while Mom and I waited at the pig barn.
Now it was a bit cold outside—and let’s not forget that Simone was a rather old horse who didn’t get ridden very much—so by the time Grandpa and Jodie had taken a turn around the pasture and it was my turn, he was just about ready to be done. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that. Now it was my turn to be plopped up there and go for a ride. They got me up there, and Grandpa took us out into the pasture.
At this point in the story, I feel rather sorry for my mom and sister, because instead of waiting outside and watching us walk all the way around the pasture, they went inside the pig barn to look at my cousin’s show pigs. I say I feel sorry for them because my sister has this habit of bursting into laughter every time I get hurt (she says it’s because I make funny faces when I’m in pain, but I don’t know about that… Anyway—I think Jodie really missed a good opportunity to guffaw, because as Grandpa, Simone, and I were turning to head back to the barn it got exciting. Simone being the grumpy, tired, old horse he was saw that we were heading back to the barn and thought: “Hey! We’re almost done! Once we get back to the barn I get to be free of this varmint on my back!” At that moment, Grandpa was walking beside Simone instead of holding onto the reins, because he—like the rest of us—trusted Simone to behave himself and politely walk back to the barn. However, this was not what Simone had in mind—the minute he saw that barn he high-tailed it for the drop-off. Unfortunately, the “drop-off” came early and it turned out to be a literal drop-off. About 1/3 of the way to the barn, I came flying off! (This is where Jodie would have gotten a laugh.) In the blur of the moment, he also stepped on my arm. The Lord must have been taking care of me, because I still don’t know how it didn’t break! I started crying, Grandpa ran up and got me, and Mom and Jodie finally came out to see what was going on.
And that pretty much concludes the story. There were no lasting scars or—miraculously—broken bones. I can’t recall ever riding Simone again, but I’m sure he didn’t miss me either.
Again, I’d really like to thank the Fortenberry Family Reunion for the scholarship. I plan to use it to buy textbooks for college this coming fall.