Horse Tales

 8.20.2020

I keep saying that I 'need to do this" and never quite get around to it. The time has arrived. The weather is going to get miserably hot/ humid again as summer wanders off and Fall arrives, so it is a good time to write, Right? 

This will be a series of horses I have known in the past. Some from the distant past, but each one has its own story. I have written about some back in the dim recesses of this blog, but these tales will be a little different.  Hahaha- at least I  HOPE  so.

The very first horse I remember was named Buck. I don't know just why he was called that but he was. He was very tall and "brown" back when I was 4-5 yrs old. He belonged to my neighbor and she loved horses as I was learning to. My neighbor was my mom's best friend. They'd grown up together and that friendship lasted for many, many, many years. Of course, I thought Buck was the most wonderful creature I had ever seen in my life. He had a white stripe down his face and big soft eyes and was absolutely gorgeous. In reality, Buck was a very old off-the-track Thoroughbred.. he had been injured several times before he was finally retired and my neighbor ended up owning him. It didn't matter to me that his ankles were all puffy and his back was a little swayed. He was the only "real" horse I had ever seen, so I didn't have much to compare him to. 

 At that time, Buck lived at the very first house on our lane. The pasture was nicer there and he then was taken back to the last house on the lane to live during the winter months, belonging to his owner. I guess Buck had two homes and he seemed to be content grazing his days away. I knew that Buck was living in the pasture at the first house on the lane and was forever asking someone to walk down that long lane with me so I could see Buck. Everyone was busy with school and my two little brothers were not even born yet. That left me with my older sister or older brother. The one long walk to see Buck, I remember clearly. My oldest brother had said yes, he would walk with me to see Buck. Oh, How exciting that would be!

We walked and walked and then walked some more. My little 5-year-old legs were getting tired out but I'd never once admitted it. You see, I had been told numerous times that it was too far for a little girl and that I'd not be able to walk that far. 

Back then, we lived on a long lane with 4 houses on it. It was around a mile from one end to the other and through some dark wooded areas. The road was gravel and occasionally had deep holes in it from bad weather.  Along one side on my right, was what we called "Mr. Lockharts road". It was just an old logging trail that turned into a path leading up to a magical house of stone. It was very small, just two rooms. An outside bathroom was good enough as it had no plumbing, nor electricity. Mr. Lockhart had lived in it for a very long time- longer than I had been alive! He was a scary person and we had heard that he'd gotten drunk one time and killed his brother with an ax.  Needless to say, no way was I going there. Once they got born and old enough, my brothers did. They said Mr. Lockhart gave them ice-cold sodas from a spring close to the house. Imagine that! An ice-cold spring in the ground made sodas ice-cold. Hard to believe for a little girl.

As we walked along, I dropped my favorite toy horse. He was "Silver" and had belonged to the Lone Ranger. I didn't care for the Lone Ranger but boy, I loved that horse on the TV show. To remember where I'd gotten Silver is beyond me at this point, but I had taken him along so Buck could meet him.  After all, they were both horses, right?

I stooped to pick him and my brother yelled at me to keep up. Silver got grabbed by his tail and we both galloped to catch up with him. My brother just shook his head in dismay at having such a crazy little sister.

Finally, after walking for what seemed like miles, we arrived. Walking down the long driveway and past the long-abandoned chicken houses. There were two of these on either side of a small field. The field in the middle had been an orchard at one time and there were apples still growing on a few of the trees. My brother asked me if I wanted one and one for Buck? Of course, I did.  You can imagine having two big apples and one toy horse got difficult to hang on to, but I made it to the gate where Buck lived.

My brother helped me climb up on the wooden gate as I called for the most beautiful horse in my whole world. 

"Buccccckkkkkk!!!!  BUCKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!" I dropped one of those apples as I called as loudly as I could. My brother reached through the boards to pick it up, happily, for me. 

It wasn't long before I could hear the sounds of his hooves hitting the hard ground. He sounded like he was going So fast!  In all reality, he was merely trotting along the pasture fence, down the chicken houses, around the corner to where he knew a little blond girl who loved him would be. 

He was so BIG!!!  I had to look up at the sky to see his face. A beautiful white stripe running down to his nostrils and under his chin... Big gentle eyes that looked at me with such kindness, and I knew I wanted to own a horse just like him one day. He asked about Silver and I told him that Silver was my toy horse. Not a live one like he was. Then Buck noticed we both smelled like something tasty. The apples, of course.

He lowered his massive head over that gate and looked at my brother and at his apple. As Buck was enjoying his apple, he began to make a lot of spit. Ewwww...my brother laughed and explained how to give a horse an apple. Ummm, I didn't see a reason to hold my hand out with that apple sitting on it. He put his hand under mine and steered it towards that large mouth with teeth in it. I can imagine I was leaning back as far as I could when Buck took my apple, in fear of losing my whole arm. 

He didn't! I still had my hand, my arm and he had the apple in his mouth. He had taken it so gently I hardly noticed it leaving my hand. I stood there watching him chew it up and of course, creating more slobber that went all over me, and pretty much everywhere. There's a lot to be said about being a little girl standing close to a horse enjoying his apples...

After that, I gave him a soft pat on his big face and a kiss on his slobbery mouth as I told him "bye', As we walked back up that long lane, I asked my brother if he loved horses and he said no he didn't like them at all. Too messy and stinky. He preferred boats to horses. Something I didn't understand but decided it was alright. I didn't know everything- yet.

I don't know what happened to Buck. I guess he died one day and was buried, but I am not sure just how it all went. Both my mom and her best friend are gone now, but I still wonder...  
The photo below is not Buck, but it is almost as I remember him. There's a photo of him somewhere in my pictures and maybe one day I'll come across it. He was my first love and I'll not forget him.