I just couldn't resist; I am recuperating from hand
surgery and can't ride, so I'll add to the First Horse Stories.
No. 1 My family had a dairy
and my dad would set me up on one of the gentler milk cows while he milked both
sides of a 24 cow flat barn. I would look out the dairybarn windows and
imagine I was riding over the hills in the distance on my black and white
pinto. Sometimes he forgot to take me off when he let out the string and
I'd get a real ride out into the "out" corral.
No. 2 My dad's old saddle
mounted on a sawhorse; I'd spend literally hours there, staring at the
hills in the distance, imagining...
No. 3 A really nice set of
stick horses, my favorites were made from eucalyptus branches and stripped of
the bark to make palominos.
No.4 The haybuck gas tack,
when we were putting up hayshocks in the summer. The haybuck was a 1927
Buick straight 8 (engine) turned backwards, all sheet metal removed, with long
wooden teeth in the front that picked up the loose hay "shocks". Sitting
on the gas tank gave me a hot butt, as some of the gas always leaked out.
And I had to hang on for dear life when we went thru the yard gate heading up
the hill to the hay barn. Wow; lucky I wasn't killed, but I never fell
off!
No. 5 was a
Bucking Barrel, on pulleys, and ropes, so with my brothers and/or the neighbors
got together, you got one heck of a ride. It was a 55gal METAL drum, lucky
I never got clobbered in the head when I went flying off.
No. 6 was a REAL pony.
He unloaded me daily. Or if he got tired, he just laid down. I loved
him to death and rode all over those hills on him, this time for
real!
I've had Real horses ever since, but I sure
remember all my FIRST HORSES!! renie burnett
