When I was 3 years old I got my first horse. Her name was Cindy like my first daughter. I did not think about that when I named my first born but I wondered later in life if subconsciously I did. Horses were the love of my life. Right after Cindy we got Thunder and I really fell in love. Thunder was a blood red bay with a white stripe. He came home to our house in the back seat of our car with my mom holding him, or trying to hold him still enough he could not crawl up front when he was a baby. We bottle fed him and he became my life until I was in the 8th grade.
Thunder was so calm and mellow in some ways and such a big *#$& in others. Now I am older I think us kids are what made him a #)$*. We used that horse for everything. We could not get on him so we would crawl up his tail and try to get on. We found out if he put his head down we could lay behind his ears and then pull the reins and he would put his head up and we would slide right on. Sometimes you had to get grain to get his head down. We would ride him 4 and 5 deep bare back. You could do anything with old Thunder except make him go fast. He got lazy and you had to kick every step to keep him at a lope. The neighbor said it looked like we were trying to fly as here we would come with our legs and his just a flying.
If you fell off Thunder you had to lay real still until he came to check on you and then grab his reins. If you didn’t he would run off to home or even take off to Gateway about 3 miles away and you would be walking home. I hated it when he went to Gateway, it was a long walk and then you had to chase him and pen him in a corner. He did not mind running when you were chasing him.
I almost always rode bareback as I could not put the saddle on. One day we were off to Gateway for the day and my brother put the saddle on Thunder where I could get on and off since I was going all day. We could also tie a lunch behind the saddle. Off to Gateway we went. We came to a steep hill and started down it when I noticed it looked like Thunders ears were getting closer and then…………All of a sudden here came his ears towards me at about 90 mph. I jumped off and there stood Thunder with that saddle behind his ears penning his head to his legs. We were lucky he was such a good horse, he stood there while we got him unhooked. We laid the saddle down and found a rock to get on the horse with and went home. Dad made my brother go get the saddle. He said he did not tighten the cinch cause he thought I could do that. A good reminder to always check your gear before getting on a horse as it is your buns that pay the price.
One night about midnight I hear some noises out by our gas tank. I ran into my dad’s room and told him I thought someone was stealing gas. He said “turn the light off” I thought he wanted the light on to see the guy. He wanted me to turn the bedroom light I had turned on off. Instead I ran outside right across the road from the gas tank and plugged in the big yard light. Dad was in hot pursuit of me in his under-ware because he was afraid I would get hurt. Anyway I plugged that big light in and the world exploded. Whoever was at the gas tank took off running, we don’t know how many there were as Dad was trying to get to me and I was plugging the light in. Whoever it was ran into the bailer and knocked it off the piece of wood the hitch was sitting on. They ran into other equipment. The noise they were making I am sure there were more then one or two even. They hit the electric fence hollering and tore it down and were gone. The animals in the pasture were running.
The next morning my dad came into my room and told me he had some bad news for me. I was afraid just by the look on his face and his tone of voice. He told me Thunder had fallen and hit his head and killed himself probably when the prowler spooked him. I cried so hard and I wanted to see him because I wouldn’t believe it. Dad finally gave in and took me down there. I held his bloody head and cried all day. I never made it to school.
I did not want him to go to the rendering plant so dad borrowed a back hole to dig a hole. In central Oregon the ground is so rocky and dad hit solid rock each time he tried to dig a hole. He finally had to dynamite a hole big enough to bury Thunder.
What a dad, the expense when we did not have extra money and the time he took to try and help a girl’s broken heart. He told me I could have any horse we could afford and oh how he would regret those words but my dad always said “Your word is the only thing no one can take from you, they can take everything else you have including your life but they can’t take your word so make it count for something”. Another thing I am sure he regretted telling me after that remark which is another story on the horse I replaced Thunder with.
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