Back when our girls were growing up, we parents had to find a strategy to distract them from guys as long as possible. Fortunately, they discovered horses, and Karen and I had a reprieve. The three older girls worked hard and saved their pennies until finally, they bought a horse. Of course, all they could afford was a very old horse. Here is my recollection of its demise:
The inescapable fact of midlife is periodically underscored by an event. Yesterday, we discovered Cody, our old horse, dead in the creek. Cody had been teetering on the brink for quite a while, so, while we were a little sad, we were mostly relieved.
But then we were faced with an unpleasant reality: You can’t leave old Cody in the creek. He needs a proper burial. How in the world do you get him out of the creek and up the embankment to the nearby equine burial grounds? At first, I didn’t have an answer. A winch? Some levers? Some Rube Goldberg contraption? Then I spied my son Seth and his friends ambling thru the woods. “Hey, come help move Cody!” I yelled.
There is a big gap between the macho image that guys cultivate around women and their own fumbling reality. When Seth and his friends saw Cody, legs and neck all splayed out in the creek bed, their response was, “Oooh. Yuck!”
I cajoled them like a football coach. “C’mon, it’s messy work, but someone’s got to do it. Cody can’t be left here unmourned and fouling the creek. Every man grab a leg and I’ll grab the tail!” Much nervous laughter ensued as we drug Cody out of the water. When it came time to move the head, there was no delicate way to do it, so we just grabbed the ears and lifted.
After much straining and grunting, inch by inch, we drug him up the hill, at the end heaving his haunches over the lip of the embankment, and falling back in exhaustion, laughing at the macabre proceedings and our own dysfunction as grave diggers. But we did get shovels and, finding it difficult to dig a proper hole or even scavenge much dirt there in the forest, we kind of formed a burial mound around him.
You always hear the cowboys in the Westerns talking about “Giving him a decent burial.” I don’t know that our little ceremony rose to that level, but at least we hid Cody from view. Hardly a somber occasion though.
Yes, middle age has arrived, but it’s better than the alternative.
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Hey! im maddy im 14 and love horses but my dad says they cost to much so im saving up for one
OH MY HORSE GODS thats terrible im so sorry for you i love horses with a passion but my dad hates them says they cost to much money
I thought your horce story was good. i love horces i am 15 and i have 92 horce things in my room of them. But i never ridden a horce isn’t that lame? i think so you are lucky you have a cool horce.
I thought your horse story was good but kinda mean. I have one black horse and if i found my horse ded i wouldnt pull its head up by the EARS and i understand yeah his dead but his soul could still be in his heart when he died and he might of still had feelings and i would have pick up my horse a much appropiete way if i found him dead. I wouldve done anything to get my dead hore out of the creek a MUCH appropiete way. FROM A CONCERNED HORSELOVER!
Hi i wrote a letter all ready and i am SORRY that i sounded like a BITCH! I cryed when i heard this man stroy….. One day a chestnut coulored horse dartd in front of a truck and the horse had good inctenct and turned and ran the way he came from and the horse wouldnt of died if this asshole of a truck driver didnt swerve and hit the horse on purpose. And the driver got out of his truck and felt the horses pulse and all the cars on the road stopped and he yelled the horse is…… dieing and laughed then got in his tuck again and reversed and ran over the horses neck and made it enternal bleeding[the horse was still alive but dieing]. After the truck driver left i got out to see the horse and called the vet and the people that take dead aanimals off the road and they came. And i was bowling my eyes out cause i realized he was my YOUNG HORSE that went messing SNIFF SNIFF. aND I STRANGLY burred him in my back yard and my parents dont know they think his in the grave yard where like your horse is. FROM A HORSELOVER!
Hi i wrote a letter all ready and i am SORRY that i sounded like a BITCH! I cryed when i heard this mean stroy….. One day a chestnut coulored horse dartd in front of a truck and the horse had good inctenct and turned and ran the way he came from and the horse wouldnt of died if this asshole of a truck driver didnt swerve and hit the horse on purpose. And the driver got out of his truck and felt the horses pulse and all the cars on the road stopped and he yelled the horse is…… dieing and laughed then got in his tuck again and reversed and ran over the horses neck and made it enternal bleeding[the horse was still alive but dieing]. After the truck driver left i got out to see the horse and called the vet and the people that take dead aanimals off the road and they came. And i was bowling my eyes out cause i realized he was my YOUNG HORSE that went messing SNIFF SNIFF and i chased the truck driver cause i saw where it went and i yelled you f*c*ing idiot i hate you and i tol the police and he got put in jail for a couple of years. aND I STRANGLY burred him in my back yard and my parents dont know they think his in the grave yard where like your horse is. FROM A HORSELOVER!
these stories are very grusome but i understand where you all are coming from. my horse is getting very old and i am nevous every time i go in the barn. i can’t imagine what i would do if he died i love him so much. i am sorry that you had to deal with that. 🙁
Hi Maddy. It’s good that you are saving up for a horse. Do you have a job that allows you to earn money? That is what my daughter did. And then we helped her a bit. My daughter got an old horse that was cheaper, but it was good enough for her to learn about horses. Your father loves you and wants you to be happy, so I suggest that you really listen to him and make sure that he understands that you understand his concerns.