July 29th, 2022

Around age 8, my entrepreneurial Dad purchased a bean field in the country, a used single wide mobile home and an old farmer's very very old tractor.  We moved there and the adults began to build stuff.  But the neighbor down the road was a crazy horse girl named Carol.  She did babysitting for Mom here and there.  She had two very old, well kept ponies sitting unused in a pasture that were too small for her to ride.  She had a beautiful tall appoloossa mare named Concho.  She offered the ponies to us and my gutsy/niave Mom said yes.  Carol said, let's see how they get along.... so we went to the newly constructed arena.  the oldest pony, Amigo, was known to be most difficult.  So my older sister got first dibs on him .. just because she was older.  Amigo was quick to dump her and break her glasses.  I thought, " Now is my chance to prove myself and win over this pony!".... my frontal lobe had not even started to develop, clearly.  Because I should have thought, " what is this fucker going to escalate into?"   The pony had no saddle.  The "bridle" consisted of a single piece of leather over his ears holding a shank bit into his mouth.  He tested me.   Tried the same shit he did with my sister.  But I saw it, so I was ready.... and he had a shank.  So we stayed in the arena.  I stayed on.... and we became Amigos... but only for a year.