My first horse experience was a neighbor Shetland named Shorty! He lived daily haltered to the hay bin munching and always available to get the cows or take a short ride with my friend who was part of that family on the next pasture north from us. Great memories.

Our first horse of our own was Blaze–a mustang taken from Teddy Roosevelt National Park in ND on an annual horse round up and numbers of horses in the park control. The mustangs were brought to local auctions and Dad bought Blaze, a black horse so named for the wide white color down his face, four white stockings and mane and tail that was wild and flowing always in the wind. Blaze never made it as a good saddle horse, first rise every day a rodeo of its own and Dad always insisted on taking that ride to prevent injury to we kids; aged 4 to 10 at the time. A real beauty and a workout to ride. Blaze met his glory when we pastured him one winter with a neighbor who had two work horses. One blustery winter day Blaze came running from the pasture to the house whinnying, rearing, and generally making a big fuss; then wheeling away to the far reaches of the pasture only to return again. After about three trips the farmer decided to follow him back and found one of his work horses floundering on its back caught in brush and snow. The horse would have died except for Blaze fetching the farmer! Don’t you know the farmer sang praises about Blaze for several years?

Blaze was a great horse, beautiful in stature and antics, and solid around the pasture. Our best efforts to make friends had great results but he was one of those who insisted on the wrestling match daily under the saddle. One of the last ‘under saddle’ events was Dad stepping into the saddle as Blaze reared (almost over) and went into his sun whirl spinning in circles on his back feet never coming down out of the rear. My Dad was so concerned that an accident was imminent, he got us together and announced the horse would be sold into an adult world without fear for children. We cried and said our goodbyes. Learned loss, learned to rebound, learned to go on!