Horse Memories

Horse Memories, originally uploaded by pictureinfocus.

BDOS072906_0197B
Horse Memories
Boarded Hall Farm
St. George, Barbados
Series: Walking From Jopya Drive to Byde Mill
(07-29-2006)

Horses are absolutely beautiful animals. And it goes without saying that we compare things and people to the sheer power of the beautiful beast. You can always find someone describing their car or some fast machine by the horse power it has. But for me I am going to keep it simple.

Yes, simple, because my love for horses did not come from going to the race track with my father, even though we did. Nor, did it come from hour spent in some horse betting establishment. It came from growing up in the Garden Land as a boy and seeing the only horse around for miles. In Tamarind Lane, under rows of Tamarind trees, this beautiful aging horse would be staked out. We as kids played around the horse with both excitement and fear. When the owner, Livy, a man who seemed to be as old as the hills, always aloud us to pet the animal. That meant a lot to us kids in the neighborhood.

Even the sometimes distasteful smell of the horse could not deter us, and the accidental step into the manure was always looked upon as dirty. But Livy used to sell the manure to the surrounding folk. And its use was also in demand for preventing little kids from sucking their fingers. This I know from experience. One time Livy followed my older sister home with the horse threatening her he would wrap the manure around her finger if she would not stop sucking her finger. Needless to say, and I am not at all kidding, she stop sucking her finger some time after.

So now that I am walking beautiful St. George and happened upon this wonderful horse in the paddock I am just remembering all those precious moments spent growing up in the Garden Land. Those memories were truly great, even if it was with one old horse.

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