Horse Love Forever

When I was young, my dad brought me home a horse. It was a love-hate relationship from the beginning. That gray mare sensed immediately I wasn’t a seasoned rider and gave me all kinds of trouble, which always included inflicting pain on my skinny body. But finally, as I became more experienced, we came to a kind of cease fire. She may not have been the best gift, but she gave me one of the best gifts a horse-crazy teenager could want. One frigid February morning with a punishing Western Oklahoma wind freezing our faces, my dad and I braced the blowing snow to get to the barn to witness the birth of the most beautiful filly I had ever seen. I trained her and rode her for many years. I loved that horse! Some believe your beloved animal friends will be there with family and friends to meet you when you’re resurrected. I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is, I’m sure I’ll be riding a luminous, whiter-than-white, flying, but very familiar, horse then.