SUPPERTIME!

It is clear to everybody that the ordinary or nonprofessional horse ranks only with the dog as an animal likely to go to heaven. There are horses who never won anything, who never tried to win anything, who are remembered with love many years after their death, simply because they had ingratiating ways, stepped on some great bastard's foot and otherwise showed such decent character that no human could fail to love them.

Henry Mitchell

The Washington Post, June 9, 1989

Like human beings, horses are all individuals with singular personalities, their own virtues and their own faults. We become bound to them for their beauty, their eccentricities, their heart and the love they so often return to us.

Lana Slaton

Horse in History Coloring Album, 1987

Horses can tell time. You can't fool them and they don't like to be put off. Now that the days are getting longer I'm sliding back suppertime and it isn't going over so well! I like to feed about dusk, so that it's the end of the day but I don't have to worry with a flashlight. In the mornings everyone is a little more patient, although I'm not quite sure why. I still like to get out there before the sun gets good and up. Heaven forbid if I were to sleep in; I believe they would storm the house, goats in tow! When I am late, Tango stands in the corner of the corral right off the back porch, his eyes straining to catch any little movement inside. Ah well... I slept in enough in my twenties!

Horse really do have their own personalities. Tango, for instance. He's a grouch. He nips, swats with his tail, (very bad manners!) crowds, (nearly intolerable) and bullies everyone else out there around. I know that's all bad, and that I shouldn't let him get away with it (I know, Karen, I know!) ! But as a riding horse, he's wonderful. He's brave, dependable, and I like to think that he'd never take off without me. At least he didn't the time we were riding with friends up in the Sierras and I fell off the back of him while climbing a steep rise in the trail (the only time I've ever come off him, and not his fault). Very scary! There I was, sitting in the middle of the trail (on the side of a mountain!!) on my toucas and there he was, stopped in his tracks looking back at me quizzically! I was pretty much the "butt" (so to speak) of my friends' jokes for the rest of the day! It's OK, I'm a pretty good sport! (Miss McSill, I can just hear you laughing right now!) My friends didn't SEE me fall, for I was bringing up the rear, but apparently a big THUMP was heard ( I got a new nickname out of that fall!). They all insisted that I had to have done a complete flip to land in such a way behind my horse. I told them I was sure I hadn't...I couldn't remember flipping and Tango wasn't talking! Later on I realized they must have been right because I found my jeans were, well... full of leaves :) I know that amuses you, but the point is not that I had leaves in my jeans, but how loyal my little horse is! Tango was a gift - really - a gift I didn't even know I wanted. I sort of inherited him. I know! Me inherit an animal? Shocking! He may not look like much, but he is a registered Paso Fino with a fairly decent pedigree. Not that that means too much to either of us! We took a little kidding in the beginning, but he gained the respect and adoration of all my California trail riding friends too. Right girls? :) And he's my favorite riding horse ever!

The picture above captures one of my favorite moments of the day. I was born loving horses and caring for Tango and Sombra keeps that very real love a part of my daily life. I am very grateful for and love them both very much! Love, RED (aka Thumper :)