Draw Reins

[TG]

When I was a kid my first job was on a ranch in Colorado breaking horses. There were 2 of us; one guy, John, with gentle hands, got the new 2yr. olds; I got the yahoos that had developed bad habits like biting people or kicking them.

There was one horse I never broke. He always won against people. He would just wait and wait and wait until you made a mistake, and then he nailed you. He became
.......glue for his victories over people.

And then there were the horses we broke, and the partnerships, some rocky, some trusting.

But the dangers never left. My favorite was a fat old Morgan mare who felt like a Lazy Boy recliner when she was ridden bare back. Like all Morgans, the cutest face in the world. Her name was Pixie, and she had a face to match. Slow as all hell. But she would run through fire if you asked her.

One day we were riding across a talus slide at the edge of a cliff, and she started to slip on the talus. Her rear legs went over the edge of the cliff. I grabbed a stirrup and pulled. Ending up lying on the talus, pulling, feet every so often going over the edge. She didn't understand I was trying to help her. She clobbered me a few times with her hoofs as she tried to pull herself back up off the cliff and I lay on the talus pulling at the stirrup. Two other men who loved her raced down to grab something and pull. All four of us pulling and sliding at the edge of that cliff.

And we pulled her up. Everybody loved that horses, and nobody was going to stand around and watch her die, if we could do anything. Even if it was dangerous. We all loved that brave old girl.

thrall, you're wrong about quelling the fear. You cannot quell the fear. It is ever present. What you can have are people united to share it with.