- November 1, 2024
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These four-legged farm animals, Slick and Keelee, have replaced boys as heartthrobs for teenage sisters Sage and Trinity Calugar, whom they will accompany at the state 4-H competition next month.
Their affection for horses sprang back in 2013, when Trinity relentlessly begged her parents to go on a trail ride at the Flagler County Agricultural Museum. After hearing that the museum was run by volunteers, Trinity and Sage convinced their mother, Laura, that it would be a great character-building exercise for them to volunteer and help take care of the horses. That developed into a riding lesson to bi-weekly lessons to eventually leading Laura to get a home that was made ready for horses, where they not only house their horses, but their friends’ horses as well.
“We spend a fortune on horses, but it's totally worth it,” Laura said. “I’d rather our girls be obsessed with horses and not
boys.”
"We spend a fortune but it's totally worth it. I’d rather our girls be obsessed with horses than boys."
LAURA CALUGAR, Sage and Trinity’s mother
While the $5 carnival horse ride may seem easy-going, preparing for such—especially a competition event can take hours. The girls have to brush the horses’ hair—sometimes braid it, bathe them, saddle them and perform other preparation methods. The worst I've personally seen the girls do for the horses is clean the poop from the horses' hooves.
“People think horseback riding isn’t a sport; it’s a sport just to get the horses ready,” Laura said.
Trinity, the younger of the two, says she has found her niche in this unlikely sport with a more unlikely partner.
“I had tried other sports before horses, like basketball and gymnastics,” she said. “Those sports were OK, but they have nothing on horses. My teammate now is a 1,000-pound animal who is totally dependent on me. I have to think about her needs every day. I spend many hours training, grooming and caring for her. In return, she takes care of me in the arena during competitions and when I need a good friend to hang around.”
As mentioned by Trinity, the daily responsibility of caring for their animals has educated Sage and Trinity so much with life and living selflessly. Sage compares owning a horse to “having a toddler."
"No matter how late or early it is," she says, "I have to feed and care for him.”
But, when everything is set in order, and the girls are ready to ride, they saddle up and venture onto a magical joy ride.
“When I'm riding Slick, it feels like I'm flying,” Sage said. “As my 4-H motto says, "Horses lend us the wings we lack." Riding is more than just saddling up; it's getting on the back of a 1,000-pound animal who has the power to kill but remains so gentle. Only God could create such an animal.”
