Belly Landing on a Stone Wall
When I was on summer vacation in Blekinge, all sorts of things happened. I wasn’t very old when my parents bought the summer cottage, and I loved being there. I mostly kept myself occupied, but of course, I enjoyed having company. One day, an old man came cycling by and asked if his daughter could come play with me. It was the countryside, and she probably felt lonely during the summer break since there were no other children nearby. I was thrilled to have someone to play with, and the next day, he brought Eva-lill. She was a bit younger than me, small and skinny with big eyes, and looked a little scared. I was big and strong, so I thought it was fun to finally be the one who could take charge and be the “big sister” to someone. Eva-lill taught me to speak Swedish, and I taught her all sorts of mischief.
Eva-lill loved drawing and doing bead embroidery, while I thought it was cool to play Vikings, catch fish, and ride the workhorses. We complemented each other well and developed a fantastic friendship. Later, when we got a bit older, we bought 10 packs of Rocky Mountain cigarettes with menthol flavor and secretly smoked them when we went swimming. We hid the packs in the stone wall on the way there and hoped it wouldn’t rain too much on the matches. Naturally, I also wanted to teach Eva-lill to ride because, to me, that was the best thing in the world. She dared to sit on the horses a little while I held them, but she was mostly terrified.
One day, an old man passing by saw us and suggested that there was someone nearby who had ponies, which he thought would be a better size for us than the big workhorses. I never missed a chance to ride, so we cycled a few kilometers to Bertil Månsson, who bred Gotland ponies. He was very kind, and we were allowed to try riding the older mare, Julita, who was the mother of the others. She had been ridden before and was very gentle. We continued to visit there often, although it was quite a long bike ride. I often think about how incredibly fit we must have been, cycling, swimming, and walking so much back then. Bertil Månsson’s farm was at the bottom of an incredibly long downhill slope, which was nice on the way there, but we had to climb that long hill on the way back when we were tired from riding.
After a while, Bertil noticed that I could ride well and had a good way with horses, so he let me train the young horses. He was happy too because it made them easier to sell. I even trained his stallion, Julius, and had a lot of fun with him. Eva-lill would come along and watch; she rarely rode but didn’t mind coming along. There weren’t many places to ride, so we had to do it in the pasture. It sloped, so there was a hill down when you rode out and a hill up when you rode back. I had trained Julius so that we could walk and trot a bit downhill, and then we would gallop uphill on the way back. Julius enjoyed it and liked to speed up the hill.
One day, when Eva-lill was with us, she watched this and thought it looked like a lot of fun, so she wanted to try it too! I was aware that her riding skills weren’t very advanced, so I was initially happy when she said she wanted to try. Finally, something had sparked her interest in the horses! But then I tried to talk her out of it, realizing it might not be the best idea. However, she insisted and really wanted to give it a go! She walked Julius down the hill while I gave her tips on what to do, and then she turned him around at the bottom. Julius did what he usually did and started galloping full speed up the hill. It looked really good until they reached the end of the pasture, where there was a stone wall. Julius turned left, and Eva-lill continued straight ahead, landing on her belly across the stone wall.
I was terrified—I was sure she had seriously hurt herself—but she got up without a scratch. I was afraid something had happened to her and also worried that if anyone found out, I might not be allowed to ride there again. I was actually proud of her for handling it so well, and she thought it had been exciting until the unfortunate ending. She never rode Julius again. However, I later got permission to borrow Julius for a while, but that’s another story!
