I adore horses and have since the American Quarter Horse Association sent me a free poster but I do not own one. This may have something to do with the two near death experiences that I had as a child after I had received that awesome poster but I'm not really sure. I still adore them and over the years I have fallen for different breeds. The Clydesdale Horse rates high on my list, followed by Percheron and Shire, then American Paint and finally the Mustang.
As I wrote in my last blog, the men with The Long Trail Home were brought to my attention in a round about way. My daughter works at a horse rescue. She and I discuss the horses daily and the conversation usually revolves around difficulties that the horses are overcoming. When she arrived home full of excitement it was strange to me and there was no hiding it. Look, I was raised in the suburbs and attended well groomed county fairs. She's shoveling horse manure. I spoil the cat and dog. She takes me to the rodeo.
The second rodeo I attended was a really cool, free-spirited crowd. The excitement was contagious from the minute we entered the gates. The weather was beautiful, the horses all appeared pristine and the vendors were busy with the crowd. My husband and I decided to sit in the third row of the stands since I have a bad knee.
Intermission arrived and the people around us started to talk to us. Seems most of us in the lower rows of the stands have bad knees. The lower the row, the worse the injury? Anyway, a man about our age came along with his wife and they sat in front of us. We welcomed them to the party! The more, the merrier! We laughed and joked and carried on and suddenly a teenage girl approached. We all became politely quiet.
The wife asked the girl what she was doing? The girl told her mother that she was just going to go visit with one of the guys with the rodeo. The man, in a deeper voice than I remembered, said, "You don't need to be hanging around with those cowboys." The girl's eyes grew large as she looked at her dad. The man turned around in his seat, belted my husband in the arm and said, "You know I'm right about that." We all shook our heads and smiled trying to hold back our laughter. The wife moved over a bit so the daughter could sit down next to her.
I commend Matt with his success in raising money for The Semper Fi Fund. His dedication and compassion for his brothers-in-arms is extraordinary. Please support Matt's effort by making a donation at The Long Trail Home.
Matt, I'm sorry that my suburbian upbringing made me leery of cowboys.
I know my fearlessness pales in comparison to yours,
but I would put money on it that you would have
told that sweet, young girl the same thing.
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