Breathing Giants
Oct. 31st, 2005 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakA Pointless Story
Breath. I was suddenly reminded today of the way a horse breathes. The big warm puff of air when one nuzzles up to you. How they respond when a small child nuzzles back, blowing a puff of air at the horse's nose in imitation.
It is an amazing feeling to be up upon such a large creature, especially bareback. When I was young and did not yet know that it was impossible and dangerous I would go into the stall of my favorite horse, Ali, when he was having his oats. He would let me lie upon his back, I even feel asleep upon him once. He was an exceptionally calm and gentle gelding. He would have been described as a Chestnut, that rich mahogany color with a slightly darker mane with a white splotch on his forehead. We had two others, a grey name Niki (who could be a bit headstrong) and a younger dark horse named Cher.
I was run over by the horses once. I oppened a gate and they came running through for food and I was in the way. They just did not see little me there. My parents were very afraid that I'd been killed, but Ali did not step upon me. And I learned an important lesson about the limits of what an animal could see, how we did things a certain way so our behavior would work well with theirs.
We had to sell the horses when Frontier Airlines got into trouble back in 1986. I suppose that Ali has gone the way of all flesh a long time past and I do not even know when, but I remember him fondly. It was at once totally ordinary and extraordinary to have horses. It was a good experience for me.
Breath. I was suddenly reminded today of the way a horse breathes. The big warm puff of air when one nuzzles up to you. How they respond when a small child nuzzles back, blowing a puff of air at the horse's nose in imitation.
It is an amazing feeling to be up upon such a large creature, especially bareback. When I was young and did not yet know that it was impossible and dangerous I would go into the stall of my favorite horse, Ali, when he was having his oats. He would let me lie upon his back, I even feel asleep upon him once. He was an exceptionally calm and gentle gelding. He would have been described as a Chestnut, that rich mahogany color with a slightly darker mane with a white splotch on his forehead. We had two others, a grey name Niki (who could be a bit headstrong) and a younger dark horse named Cher.
I was run over by the horses once. I oppened a gate and they came running through for food and I was in the way. They just did not see little me there. My parents were very afraid that I'd been killed, but Ali did not step upon me. And I learned an important lesson about the limits of what an animal could see, how we did things a certain way so our behavior would work well with theirs.
We had to sell the horses when Frontier Airlines got into trouble back in 1986. I suppose that Ali has gone the way of all flesh a long time past and I do not even know when, but I remember him fondly. It was at once totally ordinary and extraordinary to have horses. It was a good experience for me.