A Gift Horse

In the Australian vernacular he was a ‘flea-bitten’ grey. Not dappled like a dream horse but speckled like a rock and not a fine large horse like Tom Cable’s roman-nosed, Major. Dad had traded for him- with Tom - two rolls of barbed wire and a fence strainer. He came with a used saddle and bridle and the high spirits of the seldom ridden. Dad knew, that before he would let me mount him, he had to take the 'curry' out of him - rode him hard through a ploughed paddock. Rode him until he stood in a foaming sweat ears sideways, subdued. I can’t forget being led, those first few rides “Don’t let go of his head, Dad” I’m not ready yet,” Dad and I knew the horse sensed the trembling in my being, until one day, his bone- jarring trot, became a solved puzzle. I felt a gathering- a sense of balance between the pony’s mouth, the stirrups and the reins and suddenly from a secret fulcrum I was posting, “Let him go now, Dad,” I shouted, A sweet transition to some rhythmic, magic floating Around the homestead once and back I was cantering. I pulled the reins, “Whoa boy!” That first halt obeyed filled my head for days and days.