{"id":575,"date":"2016-04-28T18:07:25","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T23:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=575"},"modified":"2016-04-28T18:07:25","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T23:07:25","slug":"favorite-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=575","title":{"rendered":"FAVORITE HORSES"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I hear the term kid horse, I automatically think of an old horse.\u00a0 My first horse was old, and those we have had for the children and grandchildren have been old. They have passed the stage of being too frisky for an inexperienced rider.<\/p>\n

Flood waters around the state in the past few weeks brought stories of stranded animals.\u00a0 While watching pictures of horse rescues in the Houston area, I thought of Shadow.\u00a0 I first saw Shadow when our youngest son bought her for his daughters.\u00a0 She had once been in the remuda for mounted corrections guards at the state prison in Huntsville, Texas.\u00a0 As she got older, she went to a Boy Scout camp.\u00a0 My son bought her from the camp for his young daughters. She was sometimes in Weatherford and sometimes here in Stephenville\u00a0 She was a gentle, friendly horse.\u00a0 As the girls grew older, they were involved in too many activities to have time for riding. She finally went to the ranch of one of Ken\u2019s cousins in Oklahoma to be ridden by his young grandchildren.<\/p>\n

The Washita River runs through the cousin’s property, and it flooded last year.\u00a0 Three of their horses became stranded on a little island in the river.\u00a0 I watched a video of the horses swimming for their lives as they were coaxed and led through the rushing water.\u00a0 I heard the whistles and calls of those on dry land.\u00a0 When I heard the encouraging voice of a cousin calling \u201ccome on Shadow,\u201d tears came to my eyes.\u00a0 It was thrilling to watch the three horses reach solid ground and slosh their way out of the water.<\/p>\n

\"20160428_145741\"<\/a>\"20160428_145847<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0stranded \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0coming out of the water<\/em><\/p>\n

Shadow was no longer ridden by the children.\u00a0 We prepared to bring her back to Stephenville to live out her remaining days.\u00a0 His cousin found her dead in a pasture the morning we were to get her.<\/p>\n

We took two horses to Harlingen when the children were small.\u00a0 One had not been ridden for several years, and the other was unbroken.\u00a0 The children were told that Ken would need to ride the horses first. \u00a0He would break one and get the other accustomed to being ridden again.<\/p>\n

The process started one morning in a plowed field behind our house.\u00a0 Our youngest son, Charles, would not stop pestering his Dad to let him ride.\u00a0 He watched from a back porch as Ken got on the horse that had not been ridden in a while.\u00a0 Ken was immediately thrown off.\u00a0 The horse came to the back of the house.\u00a0 Ken led him back to the field, and the horse dumped him again.\u00a0\u00a0 The horse walked back to the house. \u00a0After the process had been repeated the third time and Ken was limping back to the house, our son yelled, \u201cDad, that\u2019s all right.\u00a0 \u201cI will ride some other time.\u201d\u00a0 He went into the house and did not mention riding again for several weeks.\u00a0 Ken\u2019s persistence paid off, and he got the horse under control by the end of the day. The horse was not old, and he was not a horse for the children to ride.<\/p>\n

We decided on a calmer, older horse for the children.\u00a0 We bought Mister, a horse retired from duties on the King Ranch.\u00a0 He was patient and protective of his young mounts.\u00a0 Kevin, our oldest son, was on him one afternoon when the girth began to slip. The saddle slid until Kevin was underneath Mister.\u00a0 The horse stopped dead still, turned his head as Kevin dropped to the ground, and watched the boy get up.\u00a0 He did not move until Kevin adjusted the girth and remounted.<\/p>\n

Mister made the move with us to Georgetown in 1972.\u00a0 He had been in South Texas all of his life.\u00a0 Winter was unusually cold that year. Mister had never seen snow and ice.\u00a0 Ken went to extra efforts to protect the old horse.\u00a0 We were not letting the children ride him by this time.\u00a0 When fall approached the next year, Ken began to wonder if Mister could survive another winter.\u00a0 Neither of us had the heart to have him put down.\u00a0 He did not seem to be suffering.\u00a0 He saved us from having to make that difficult decision.\u00a0 One morning in early fall, he simply lay down and died.\u00a0 He was a true \u201ckid horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of our nieces who lived in town wanted a horse.\u00a0 She begged and begged for a horse.\u00a0 Finally, Ken promised her that he would give her Mister\u2019s first colt and would also persuade her parents to keep it.\u00a0 She waited and waited.\u00a0 She was in junior high school before she realized that Mister would never have a colt.\u00a0 She has never forgiven Ken.\u00a0\u00a0 He did give her a horse many years later when she had her first child.\u00a0 It was a custom made, wooden rocking horse with the name \u201cLittle Mister\u201d stenciled on the side.\u00a0 She refers to Ken (fondly) as her “Old Horse trader.”<\/p>\n

\"20160428_145246<\/a><\/p>\n

My favorite old horse was Dugout: a horse that had been my brother\u2019s, sold, and bought back for me.\u00a0 I wrote about him earlier as \u201cA Good Old Horse.”\u00a0\u00a0 He was just what I needed.\u00a0 He never tried to unseat me and was patient with me.\u00a0 I was not to run him, but I did, when no one was watching.\u00a0 (It is hard to believe that I ever disobeyed.) \u00a0I thought that he could run like the wind.\u00a0 When I was in junior high, I got a young paint mare.\u00a0 She was young, frisky, and could run like the wind.<\/p>\n

\"20150206_153737<\/a><\/p>\n

Any visiting city friends who wanted to ride were allowed to ride Dugout, and I rode the mare.\u00a0 One afternoon a friend wanted to race.\u00a0 I told her no.\u00a0 She ignored me and started Dugout running…\u00a0 I took off after her to try and stop him. \u00a0I could not. \u00a0He was determined that the young horse was not going to catch him.\u00a0 We had quite a race.\u00a0 At that point, I stopped the mare hoping that Dugout would stop.\u00a0 He did not stop until he got good and ready.\u00a0 He passed the point where we were to turn into our yard.\u00a0 My Dad happened to see the incident.\u00a0 I was told that whenever she visited again that we were to ride bicycles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I hear the term kid horse, I automatically think of an old horse.  My first horse was old, and those we have had for the children and grandchildren have been old. They have passed the stage of being too frisky for an inexperienced rider. Flood waters around the state in the past few weeks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[181,180,179,182],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-things","tag-gentle-horses","tag-kid-horses","tag-old-horses","tag-thrown-from-a-horse"],"yoast_head":"\nFAVORITE HORSES - Loose Strings From The Past<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Old horse and kid horse are synonymous to me. Some of my favorite horses were old and others were not.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/loosestringsfromthepast.com\/?p=575\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FAVORITE HORSES - Loose Strings From The Past\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Old horse and kid horse are synonymous to me. 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