Thursday, January 04, 2007

My Little Pony


When I was maybe four, my father realized my every girl's dream: he bought me a horsey.

My parents were at the Pendleton Round-Up (which, if you've never heard of it, is quite the ado), enjoying the shows and competitions. My mother was something of a horse woman herself. When I was small she had a Pinto, the same one she had used when she led groups of juvy teenagers around the Three Sisters Wilderness. They rode the kids around in circles in those mountains until they were certain they couldn't find their way out, then led them into the summer camps where they did rehabilitative work.

At the rodeo, my parents were separated for some period of time, one long enough that my impulsive Papa purchased a wild Mustang. At their reconnection, he was excited to tell her that he'd, "bought a pony for the kids."



I couldn't honestly tell you that this was an atypical behavior on my father's part, but I'm not sorry for it, either. It's too amusing. Anyway, my always practical and common-sensical mater berated the fool. For what were they to do with the animal? Where to house it? And who on earth did he imagine would be busting that bronc?

He found a farmer who was willing to take the horse away, for one hundred dollars. That my father paid him.

5 comments:

bulletholes said...

I always wanted to buy my Daughter a Horse. If I had been able to buy A Mustang, wild and unbreakable, only to have to turn around and pay for another to carry the beast away, the whole time being lambasted by the "mater" I would consider it all money well spent.
Thats a great story, KF!

Anonymous said...

You're just lucky your dad wasn't at a rabid yak roundup. That is a great story!

The Frito Pundito said...

Hey, it's your brother. Why do I not remember your story? I must not have been there. And probably Dad was to embarassed to mention it later on. Ah, the dark secrets that come on the Internet!

Anonymous said...

The disparities in sibling realities are shockingly huge. Still, a horse! There and gone! It has all the makings of an Annie Proulx story. I love it!

GrizzBabe said...

Talk about an impulse buy!

Annie Proulx? That is quite the compliment. I would have to concur.