A Herd of Wild Stallions

Continuing the saga of the Pony Cousins ...

- Where we left off ...

...Most families have great stories to tell;
ours is no different.


After the war, Grandpa had passed on, and the last of the 12 children
had moved from the family home.
Grandma looked forward to holiday visits,
where each set of new parents would gather together to fill her empty home again.
With each succeeding visit, there would be new cousins to get to know.

The little Cousins soon found Grandma's house to be a lively and fun place to be.
There was great food, like Grandma's chicken and dumplings;
there were games;
and there was story telling!

As children, the Cousins began to hear the family stories at these gatherings.
Our family has some great story tellers.

It was a magical time.

The Cousins got to know one another and found that
we really enjoyed playing with one another.

If there were spats, they were few and far between, and short in duration.
It's hard to stay mad at Cousins who are so much fun.

Playing games inside the house was okay in bad weather:
we all learned simple card games, the magazine game, and pass the scissors.
And out on Aunt Anna's front lawn was a great place to play
Kick the Can, Red Rover, Mother-May-I, and Dead Rabbit.

But Grandma's house was on the side of a wooded hillside

and there were lots of fun trails on which the Cousins could run, romp, and dream.

Uncle Dan had a large, wonderful barn, just up the road from Grandma's house.
The barn was 2 stories high and was for the comfort of his horses.
Upstairs, there was a rail around the perimeter of the space,
which was perfect for saddles and Indian blankets.

Cousins spent hours and hours perched on the rail,
riding the most fabulous ponies in the West.


There was a preponderance of stallions in this herd ridden
by the roughest, toughest
bunch of outlaws north of the Columbia River.

Most of the Cousins had no idea what a stallion actually was,
but we had seen the pictures and knew them to be the most desired of the equine world.
Out of the barn window, the Cousins watched the world go by as we rode our ponies,
always at a gallop, to faraway towns and ranges.

After a long day of galloping, one of the Cousins would call for a dismount,
and would suggest that we run up Grandma's hill on one of the trails.
And we would leave our fabulous ponies to graze, as we took off running to the hill.

It was on one of these forays up on Grandma's hill that the notion came to us
that the Cousins could be wild ponies, being hunted by cowboys.
Each Cousin selected the pony they would be, and, again,
there was a preponderance of stallions;
but, no matter, each Cousin was allowed a short description
of the pony that they would be.

There was a large and powerful Black Stallion

that reared and whinnied a lot;

There was the inevitable White Stallion with silver mane and tail;
There was a Palomino Stallion, shining like a bar of gold, even on a cloudy day.
There was a flashy Black and White Appaloosa,
(but, was black on the head, neck, shoulder, and body,
and had a white blanket with large feathered spots on his rump)
This elegant and fierce Appy was the clever leader of the herd;


There was an assortment of Pintos, Buckskins, and Greys;
and there was Tony the Pony

(the only boys and the youngest: either Cousin Jimmy or Cousin Derk).

The wild stallions roamed the trails of Grandma's hill,
enjoying the freedom and frenzy of being untamed.
Alas, the inevitable occurred and the imaginary cowboys found ways

to capture the wild horses, one by one.

There was much resistance to training by some of the stallions,
but a patient and gentle-hearted cowboy could win the trust of the wildest of the horses.

However, one poor wild stallion was captured by an evil cowboy
who used whips and meanness and it would bring tears to the eyes
of the roughest and toughest to see the poor, abused stallion,
a shadow of its former self, limping about with unbrushed mane and tail.

That stallion never had a chance to show its true nature, its spirit, or its love, to any human...
until...
the other wild stallions formed a plan to rescue the weak stallion from the wicked cowboy.

Achieving that victory brought much celebration from the other stallions
and they each returned to their kind-hearted cowboys.
And, one by one...
the stallions learned to love the cowboys and respond to their wishes.

It was at this point that it was discovered thatUncle Dan had numerous halters of various sizes,
all hanging within our reach in the barn.

Each of the Cousins found a halter and,
actually could step into it to wear it about our bodies,
with the headstrap over the shoulder.

This opened up a whole bunch of other possibilities for the Cousins
to display the skills of the stallion which they portrayed.

Now the stallions were led to and fro and participated in a variety of events,
such as halter competitions, barrel racing,
cutting horse competition, and general rodeo events.

The stallions were especially proficient in hunter jumping and sliding stops.

The stallions were eager to prove that they retained the skill
of traversing the trails on the hillside and galloped back and forth
from arena to trail until night fall,
when our Moms and Dads grew hoarse in calling us to the house.
When threatened with switches and general discipline,
the stallions stripped off their halters and hung them all neatly on their hooks.

Galloping down the hill to Grandma's house,
the once-again wild stallions quickly planned the "plot" for the next day.

As we hit Grandma's porch with a roar and much stomping,
we heard our parents commenting on how we sounded like a herd of wild horses.

We grinned at one another and took it as a compliment.