How to Give a Boy a Horse
Do it unashamedly. Who cares if it’s sentimental? The filly doesn’t know that and she’s still five hundred pounds of push and shove and long, stilt-like legs. The boy doesn’t know that either, and even if he does, he won’t care. This is real.
It can be any boy. The only qualification is that you shouldn’t need to invite him to the barn. He will already be there, poking his nose into this and that business, watching, waiting, and asking questions. Don’t hand him the yearling; bring him to the stall and lift the latch, gesturing your intention. He will already know all about her if he’s done his nose-poking right. Of course, she must come unnamed. If the horse colics and dies after the first year, give him another. If it happens within the first week, don’t. Give him a rope and not a halter, so he’ll have something to lead her with but nothing to attach it to. Teach the boy new words like “croup” and phrases like “gastrointestinal complications.” Don’t teach him what two pinned ears and a snaked-out neck mean. Instead, let him get nipped, stomped, tail-whipped, and bucked. Most of all, make sure that, as frequently as possible, you are able to see the boy and the filly together. Watch him run his eyes down her smooth, shiny coat, brow furrowed, as he searches for budding lines of muscle in the filly’s nicely sloping shoulder. Watch the boy lift her foot, take the metal pick, and dig out small stones from the bottom of her hoof. Watch him examine the tiny icicles dangling from her tear-ducts after a snow storm, then watch him rub her down with a dirty rag, not understanding why steam radiates off her wet coat. Watch him so often he forgets you’re there, and when he trudges to the filly’s paddock in the morning, carrot, mint or sugar cube in hand, be sure to feel grateful as she bumps her whiskered nose into his chest. Be grateful because, despite your hollowed eyes and liver- spotted hands, despite foreclosure and aborted marriage, despite that newly paved road at the end of the driveway, you know this moment is a gift to yourself. It is a chance to feel that tingling vibration shoot up from your toes, right into your heart so it damn-near flies out your chest. For once, reality and appearances will be mingled in the mind, and you can rest easy. |
Caryn Cathcart rides horses.