Horses I have known


Horses I have known

by Montie Rockwell

Montie and hrose
Montie McBride

In the years so long ago, a horse was our mode of transportation.  You had a horse or you walked.  There were no vehicles then.  No cars, no trucks, no tractors.  Everything was horsedrawn or maybe drawn by oxen, which was a slow way to go.  In my life many horses have come and gone.

There were Fannie and Frank and Charley, matched greys.  One was all fire and toe and the other mild and gentle.  Fannie was a bay mare and when loose in the pasture was hard to catch.  But she was as gentle as a lamb when caught.

Then there was “Sheep” a little yellow Indian pony Amos’s horse, mild and gentle, and a young grey horse “Dandy.”  He followed me once when on Sheep going to the post office and when he came to the corner of the pasture tried to jump the fence and cut one shoulder a bad deep cut.  But he stood quietly and let Mama sow it up.  On long runs he would go lame after that.  He was Dollie’s horse.

All those horses we had a LaPlatta (sic), Texas.

Then when we moved to the Canadian River, my brother Robert had a bay horse he called Brigham, I think after Brigham Young. I don’t remember Dave having a special horse but at that time we had a big raw-boned horse we called Longfellow.

Teant’s horse was Blue Dog.  A little blue pony that shied one morning on the way to school where I taught, and unbalanced me and I put my arms around his neck and slid down between his feet or legs.  Be he stopped still and I was not hurt.  Then there was Cricket I used to ride to school.  Even have his picture.

Pictures in those days was “something else again.” (sic)

Then when I was married and had a little girl, Catherine, we had a buggy horse we called Nellie.  We kept her in a lot back of the house and once when Mr. Rockwell went in to catch her, and she did not want to be caught, he hit at her with the bridle, not knowing his little daughter had followed him.  When Nellie saw the little girl, she jumped over her.  Then later we got a car and sold Nellie.  But we loved her and would drive to the country to see her.

Then much later we moved to our present home when Marshall was 4 years old.  There were two mares here that went with the place.  They were Maud and May.  Maud was grey and not sweet and gentle as May the black one.  She was so fat and sleek.  I also have their pictures.

We had a mule we called Rodie.  Once when Marshall was a small boy he was driving Rodie to a mower and ran into a post and broke it.  He told his father “That old fool Rodie wasn’t looking where she was going and broke the post.”

Then there was Black Beauty and Amber and others.  And now in one of the younger families there is sorrel mare called Princess, that is over 30 years old and fat and sleek and one would never guess her age.  She is Genna’s horse.

There is another horse I knew in girlhood.  His name was Ned.  He had an arched neck and his owner kept his mane roached and he looked very stylish in those days.  He was a bay.  I loved very much to ride him.

3 thoughts on “Horses I have known

    1. Good. If you have any family stories you would like to share, just put them in the comments or you could do your own post. They may not seem all that important now but they could be in the future.

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