The Sound of Thunder

There are moments in time when something happens that you've read about in a book and you think "That won't happen to me. I'll never hear that sound. I will never know how it will make me feel. Personally. Intimately.'

But I have to say that I had that experience today. Let me say first, that I have always loved horses. This came from reading so many Walter Farley books as a child. The Black Stallion, Man O' War...you know the list. I devoured them. Ate them up, but being a city girl I never really had the opportunity to be close to horses or actually know any on a first name basis.

That has changed.

Mostly because of my daughter and her over-indulgent father. Heh. Couldn't be me right? Nah...

But my daughter has been taking riding lessons. She has practically begged me for over half of her life to do just that. When she was two, we started taking her through the racing barns where her Grandmother lived. Every fall the two and three year olds would come down to North Carolina to train. They trained for Sulky racing. That's when her love affair started.

Now, I'm an idiot when it comes to these kinds of things. And let me tell you a horse that is only two still has not really learned a whole lot of manners. (Let me say only the ones that I have known) And these horses were skittish aka nervous, and even though I knew why, they still kind of scared me a bit. How was I to know that they were on a high protein feed that made them have more energy than a two year old child who's over dosed on eight bags of candy? I learned that later of course.

But now, after having helped my daughter muck out stalls, and watched her learning to ride which has caused several bouts of near heart failure, I'm learning about these amazing animals. They are so different. They have their own personalities and while they say their brain is only the size of a pea they have the ability to render me speechless with their beauty, grace and their hearts. While their brain may be small I think their hearts make up for it.

Today, after school my daughter begged and begged for me to take her out to the barn. There was no one there and they had turned the horses out to pasture. When we pulled into the stable the look of dissappointment on my daughter's face mimicked my own. We both were looking forward to seeing them. It's been raining here for days and they have been keeping the boys and girls in their stalls due to the mud. Needless to say they were a little jumpy and wanted to get out to stretch their legs.

So my daughter went into the riding ring to look for them.

That was when I heard it. That sound. The one I never thought I would hear. The sound of Thunder. Running horses. The multitude of hooves hitting the earth.

The ground really does quake and your heart speeds up and you can feel the blood rushing through your system. You can't see them, but they are there. And when they broke through the clearing, all eight of them covered in mud hiding gorgeous coats that have yet to get their winter fur, I couldn't make a sound. I just looked at my daughter and she looked at me and we just grinned. They had come to greet us, and I'm sure hoping against hope that we had brought treats with us.

We fed them carrots and peppermints (of which they all seem to love) and then they headed back out to the pasture. We got back into the car and headed out to the front pasture just to watch them.

And that is when I realized that my daughter is in love.

Not with the horse she rides. No. This is a different horse. I've never seen his owner out at the barn (and we are there a good bit) but this horse is amazing. He is huge and solid black with two white front feet. But he has the most amazing black mane that has to be at least five inches long and when he runs and arches that tail you just know you could fly if you could ride him only once.

Salem tolerates me, and only when I come bringing gifts. But for her? Oh, I think he would cross oceans for her. Whenever he sees her he comes running hell bent for leather and just when I think he's going to run us over he comes to a halt so fast the dust starts to fly.

I think Salem is in love too.

They are quite a pair. All night tonight when she was cleaning stalls, every time she passed him, that big majestic head would pop out and he would do his best to get her attention. She gave it to him. A pat here, a scratch behind his ears and of course a kiss on that silky nose.

The funny thing is Salem doesn't really take to just anyone. He doesn't really like adults and most children are afraid of him because of his size. But not my Megs. Her head barely comes to the top of his chest. He could and does put his head on top of hers. Sometimes it's just for a nuzzle or to sniff at her hair or to give her a lick. (Yeah another heart failure moment. When a horse starts licking the back of your child's neck you immediately want to snatch her away. But then I've learned that I don't think this horse would harm a hair on her head.) And he is a jealous love too. She can't show any of the other horses attention when she is there. I bet it breaks his heart when she rides Mucho. I can see him looking at them, wistfully, his big brown eyes sad.

So my daughter is in love.
I'm just thankful that it is with a horse and not a boy...

I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow