Becky's Ride on Chief (Short)

[DVeritas@aol.com]

    For Those of You Who Know:
    
    Today, while exercising my wife's Holsteiner/Arab cross gelding Chief, I 
looked up the hill and here comes Becky, cannula, oxygen tank on wheels 
behind her and a big hat on her head.
    "I wanna ride Chief," she yells at me.
    The breath left my body.  
    I got her a mounting block, she handed me the cannula and oxygen tank 
cart and asked for me to "get back, I got it"...
    She proceeded to school her 4 y.o., and in fifteen minutes had him riding 
the prettiest figures, with a soft, supple rearend pushing him forward.
    The breeze kicked up some dirt into my eyes and they filled.
    She schooled for another five minutes or so, and rode him over to me and 
said, "Thank you."  She dismounted and handed me the reins, grabbed her 
cannula and oxygen tank and made her way up in the hill to the house, yelling 
something about "what a fine animal she has."
    I KNOW she meant the horse.
    (I almost lost Becky on June 19th of this year.  She is not one hundred 
per cent, but she is fighting back.)
    Becky's napping now, so I guess I'll got back outside and get back on 
another horse...the day doesn't seem so hot and dusty anymore.  
         Frank.