Born in Skyrim, Rita was neglected as a child. Her parents were drunks who didn't care one bit about her or what she did. She practically raised herself, making do of what little food she was offered. She was fascinated by books, knowledge and history. But, her parents never saw the necessity in books, often telling her that an education would get her no where. However, because of how close they lived to Winterhold, she often visited the college library. She considered it her second home, and she learned how to read from the Orc Librarian there, Urag gro-Shub. He was her childhood friend, mentor and the only person she had ever opened up to. Her favorite books were tales of heroic warriors, defending Skyrim from enemies for centuries. Urag even got the local blacksmith to make her a wooden sword. It became her most prized possession, and she practiced it on the mages fighting dummies every day. She would pretend they were dragons from the stories, or the creepy draugr her parents tried to scare her with tales of.
"Take that, dragon!" or "You can't hurt me, draugr!" she would yell as she slashed up the dummy. It was actually quite amusing.
Swords and warriors weren't her only fascination, however. One day she came upon a book in the library that she hadn't read yet; "Zantorian: The War Horse". It was about a beautiful black stallion, the strongest war horse to ever be, and how he fought bravely along side his masters during past wars. This triggered an obsession with horses, stallions especially. Every day she would beg Urag to take her to visit the stables in Windhelm, since Winterhold didn't have one. Eventually he gave in. Rita excitedly ran home, grabbed her cloak, told her parents where she was going (To which they ignored and just gave a "Mmm" in agreement), and left with Urag in the carriage. When they arrived, Rita jumped out and ran straight to the horses. A young colt, tan colored with dark hooves and muzzle, especially caught her attention. He was running about with his tail up, pride in his eyes. He reminded her of Zantorian from the story. She spent all day studying him, following him around, petting him. She became extremely attached.
"Urag, Urag!" she exclaimed as she tug on the bottom of his shirt.
"Yes, Rita?"
"Can we take the colt home with us?"
"Uh... I don't think your parents would approve of that."
"You've never cared about them before!" she said as she made puppy dog eyes.
"Fine, fine..." Urag said with a sigh.
"YAY!" shouted Rita as she began to jump around happily. The colt mimicked her actions, and it looked like they were dancing together. Urag let out a laugh and knew he made the right choice. He paid the stable keeper, and they left once again in the carriage. Both Rita and the colt were sleepy after their day of play together, and they fell asleep cuddled up to each other. Urag decided to get some sleep himself, and told the carriage driver to wake them up when they arrived back at Winterhold.