'Fessing up'

[Marinera@aol.com]

Well, Maryben told me to 'fess up so yes, I did buy my first Arab for $350, 
but without papers.  When they found the papers about 6 months later, I gave 
them another $100.  The year was about 1969 and Wendell Robie told me you 
needed an Arab for endurance so I bought the first one I found locally.  He 
had the prettiest head and was sort of a flea bitten grey  who was the 
spookiest thing on four legs.  You could not put him in the lead if you 
valued life and limb, but in the second spot, he did just fine.  He turned 
out to be a great horse which was just pure luck because I didn't know a 
fetlock from the withers.  He was put down at age 27 due to acute colic which 
the veterinarian thought was probably caused by an enterolith.  Matthew 
Mackay-Smith once said that "when man domesticated the horse he assumed 
complete responsibility for his life———and his death."  It can be a heavy 
burden when the decision is yours, but sometimes the choices are limited.  
This little grey was the first one that I made the call.  He gave me a 
thousand times his purchase price in pleasure.   Julie Suhr