February 1 is always a reflection day for me- a time to recall some of the best days of my life-shared with my old friend Sundance! He was not a special horse, he was just my buddy--most people considered him ugly and difficult to manage but I loved him and he loved me!
The only reason I bought him back in 1976 was to give him a better life. I happed to learn of him by accident and when I saw him he was quite thin and I had the feeling he was being mistreated he jumped every time that man came near him so that told me he was scared of the guy....so thats how he came to be in my care. He was such a character, he was always watching to see a gate left ajar and then away he would go on an adventrue all on his own visiting neighboring horses, he jumped IN. Mr Young had a small herd of horses and some mornings he went to feed his stock and would find a 4th horse walking single file up the trail to the barn for breakfast-YEP Sunny strolled up with the rest and he would generally feed him then call me--LOL One day Mr. Young witnessed one of Sunny's Bucking Spells as I called them. I went over to ride with Mr Young (he was in his 80's) on a regular basis. His horses saw Sunny and Me coming up the lane and they ran out to meet us by the fence. All this running got Sunny so excited he began to buck and he literally had my head UP in the branches of a large tree that we were under--I hung on for dear life and I could hear Mr Young yelling "YEEE HAWWW" he was really hooping it up at my expense...lol I hung on but I swear he would have had me with one more buck, I had one foot out of one stirrup and the other was hanging on by the toe of my boot--I finally got his head up....he stopped bucking-- spread out squarely on all four legs and SHOOK HIMSELF---I felt like scrambled eggs! MR Young was laughing so hard and he loved to tell that story to anyone who would listen--
We had other horses from time to time, horses that needed homes, lame and going to be put down, unwanted, old, or wild, so we kept them until we could find permanent homes for them.. he had pasture mates come and go..but then he got old and they would take his food and bite him and chase him so I said no more stable mates, he was retired from riding in 1995-
He passed at age 28-(I was told her was around 7 yrs old when I found him...so its just a guess) he is buried out in the field where he lived...that photo is his marker-I do think I gave him a good life he was happy n healthy right up to the last week of his life, the vet told me the cause of his weakness was old age..
Sundance 1968-2/1/1996
