I've Been Interviewed!

I don't know where it started, but there is an interview system in the blogosphere. One blogger sends a list of questions to another to answer. I came upon Shaun's blog All Of These Voices... 

I decided I would like to be interviewed by someone younger than I and who is in a totally different place in life. So I asked Shaun to interview me and below are the results. I hope there is something new that my friends didn't know about me, but it is likely not so! Thank you Shaun for asking questions that are pertinent to my life.

I would be pleased to continue this from here, so any of my bloggy friends who may want to give this a try, all you need to do is say interview me in your response. I will send a list of questions that I come up with and you post questions and answers on your blog. It was fun to answer the questions. I don't know how much is learned about me, but I had a good time doing this!

1. Just from looking at your blog, I can tell that horses are a passion of yours. How did your interest in horses begin?

I was born to it. My father had a great love of horses and I learned it from him. I got my first horse when I was a little girl. There is an extra gene or something in some people that makes the very idea of life without horses unimaginable and I am one of those people. I have to admit that there have been a few times I have viewed it as a curse, but mostly I feel blessed.

2. What do you experience (feelings, emotions) when riding horses?

I will start by saying that I stopped being a rider several years ago. No particular reason, I just stopped. I rode a horse a few times last year after no interest in doing so for a long time, so I will talk about that experience and not all the years when riding came as easily as walking! 

I felt joy when I got on two horses that I raised, but had never ridden. It was so much fun. I also experienced something which I'm not accustomed to feeling around horses, vulnerability. My mind knew how to ride a horse and my body thought it did, but the balance and the muscle were absent, so I had a sense of my own weakness. It was a very strange feeling for someone who spends most of her life handling and caring for a large number of horses. I also rode my long time pal, Spenser, and that was a more secure feeling for me, as we had spent many hours riding together when both of us were much younger. What a wonderful adventure we had on a trail ride through the park on a glorious fall day! 

3. I'm using this question from my interviewer, because I think it tells a lot about a person. What would be your favorite film double feature and why?

As did you, I have trouble answering this. I don't watch many modern films, so I'm not well-versed in that area. I'm going to go with the first images that came to my mind: Out Of Africa, visually stunning. Babe, simply because it was a sweet story and I liked it.

4. If granted one wish, what would yours be and why?

This is going to sound like a beauty pageant answer but I really would wish to have the mess the country and the world is in to be fixed. This is not entirely altruistic, as this would benefit me more than I think any other wish. I don't need to be rich but I do need to be secure in my life and the unsettled times we are in leave me feeling insecure. 

5. Besides horses, what makes Sandra...well, Sandra?

If I am to answer this as what are my other interests, I am a gardener, at one time an avid gardener. I am an accomplished cook and I recently have begun baking bread. I enjoy the kneading process, I get to take all of my aggressions out on the dough! I am the 'cat lady' version of a dog owner, although I have dropped down to three at the time: Atlas, a German Shepherd/Afghan Hound cross, Grace the Greyhound and my little bundle of cuteness Howard the Basset Hound. I am used to my shadow including a bunch of dogs. I am also a mother of an adult son and motherhood is always a part of you and can't help but form who you are. But, I think what really makes me, me is dogged determination. When I decide on something, it happens!