Silver, Snow and Sledding. 

Growing up we had a mixture of farm animals, pets and eventually got into horses.  When I was in junior high, we somehow ended up with a horse.  He was a Palomino gelding approximately 5 years old.  He came with a "Spanish" saddle, headstall and a martingale.   At the time we got him, I thought he was the absolute best equine specimen in the world.  This is where I mention the concept of a learning curve.   At that time, I knew nothing about splint bones, ringbone, bench knees, bog spavin or the need for timely hoof trimming or the things a horse can get into.   Cast in a stall, colic for a bucket full of reasons and cuts anywhere are a few other examples.

Silver as I said was a Palomino, which is both a specific horse color and a specific breed of horse.   Palominos as you know are a blond color with different shades of yellow.  There are a variant of a recessive trait as crossing a two palominos will give a 25 percent chance of a sorrel or chestnut color.  As we were not sure of his parentage, our palomino fell in to the Grade horse classification.  When a horse is sold multiple times it develops a vague interesting colorful past.  If you have an inventive horse sales clerk, you might become the beneficiary of an impromptu-created verbal history on the first sale.   I never realized that so many horses could be just two generations away from Sea Biscuit until I listen to horse sales people.  Of course, the previous statement is in jest.  Some people in sales are carried away in the moment of the sale.

I wish to tell you about my horse Silver.   I must have been watching too much television, particularly the Lone Ranger growing up.  The name came from the phrase heigh-ho Silver that is iconic for the TV show.  Silver was a great horse for a beginner.  He tolerated more mistakes on a rider's behalf than was necessary.   It is embarrassing looking back how untrained and unskilled I was and still am as a horse back rider.

Back when Silver and I both were younger, we learned about each other's abilities.  Silver was a good unshakable road or cross-country horse to ride.  He was road hazard safe in the sense most reasonable car drivers did not cause him to shy or become skittish.  That group of drivers was the responsible adult ones.   Teenage or rebellious young adult drivers that would come up and gun the engine were a different sort.  He would elevate higher than a Lipizzaner doing dressage above the ground.  I was lucky to keep him from landing on their vehicles.   Some days are divided into horse sense and no sense, or at least horse something.

When there was a lot of snow back home we would saddle up, get a long rope and a sled for our version of horse and buggy rides.  January of 1963 Bloomingdale had five days of school due to snow and ice conditions.   We would get the chores done, get the drive way cleared and start to plan our free time until evening chores.  There were snow forts, snowball fights, trips down to Three Legged Lake to shovel snow for ice skating or a pick up game of ice hockey.   There was always something going on.  Ice fishing or shanty spearing for Pike was an activity to do from January to March.  

We would saddle up and ride double down to Gram and Grandpa Blust's house to catch up on them and just make sure they were okay.  We would also ride north to Aunt Frieda and Uncle Charlie Debos.   We would ride Silver into town to pick up mail or to get grocery staples.   One spring when the frost went out of the roads and the bottom fell out of the roads my Dad rode Silver into town to pick up flour and some other items.

Silver was a lot of fun and a great learning experience.  He did have one bad habit.  He loved to chase the cows.  If these were beef cows, we might not have minded as much.   He would bite our dairy cows on the back and rump to the point of making them too nervous to eat and produce milk.  As you know from recent Dairy ads, contented cows give the best milk.   We put a leather strap around a front ankle.  This strap had an eighteen-inch length of small log chain that would smack the other front leg to discourage cow chasing.  This worked very well until Silver figured out to chase cows on a three-legged stilted tango beat.  He would not get the cows running as fast but they were up to three quarter speed.   We tried separate pastures but Silver would figure out how to get back in with the cows. 

I used to ride Silver over to Zeke Page's house and we would play barn mow basketball.  It seemed there was a basketball hoop set up in or on just about every barn in the neighborhood.  I would play until chore time and would ride home yelling "Heigh Ho Silver away".  I turned out to be a better basketball player in my mind than in reality.   There are other people with similar memories of growing up in a less complex times.   I feel there was a dreamtime quality of less intense pressures growing into maturity. 

One winter we decided to make our own toboggan from a piece of sheet metal left over from a barn siding project.   The heavy gauged steel was bent and hammered around an oak two by four frame.  The front was bent upward and we waxed the bottom.   The place to sled was on a hill next to Muskrat Lake.   We talked my Dad and some other adult to take us up there.  It was a fun outdoor exercise and a blast.  The "Killer" hill allowed us to go out on the lake ice.   A good run would have you three hundred yards out on the lake.  Every thing went well until the last run of the day.   Somebody got off course and neglected to bail out.  The toboggan wrapped the front lip around a ten-inch tree.  It made a perfect imprint.  The rider ended up with a banged up elbow or ankle.  Their injury healed but the toboggan was retired and relegated to the junk pile. 

May your soul be full of your Silver and your memory banks full of fond memories.

For more information about a specific case, consult your veterinarian.          
The outside of a pet is good for the inside of a human.