Behind our house on Patricia Lane is a large field. It’s probably a hundred yards wide and 300 yards east to west. Across the field on the south side are the Hales. We bought Dolly, our horse, from the Hales but we pay them to take care of her since they’ve got a stable. They’ve also got a huge house built with adobe and big timbers. They are awful nice people. When one of us gets sick or hurt at school, the office calls Mrs. Hale to come get us. Both Mom and Dad work at Ryan and it’s too far for them to come home for not-so-important stuff.
It’s really great having your own horse especially since the field behind our house isn’t the only big field around; there are lots of them. There’s even a eucalyptus forest nearby. The trees were planted like an orchard so the bigger trees are in rows but lots of smaller trees grow in between. We play hide and seek and war games in the forest. Dolly doesn’t like it much because it’s kinda spooky and the ground is covered with dry, crunchy leaves and bark and fallen branches.
Dolly has made up her mind on a lot of things. She won’t walk through a puddle, for instance. And sometimes when you want her to turn or stop, she decides she wants to do something else. Dad and Noel don’t have much trouble with her because they’re a lot stronger than me. Linda does OK most of the time though. People tell us that Dolly is difficult because she’s a Thoroughbred and Thoroughbreds are often very spirited; that means they like running and having things their own way.
So I don’t ride dolly much. She’ll be OK for a while and then she’ll decide to do what she wants to do regardless how much I pull on her reins. One time she took off running from over near the forest and I slipped out of the saddle when she turned into the Hale’s dirt driveway. But I was determined to stay on so the last few hundred feet I was just hanging onto the saddle with my hands and with my left foot in the left stirrup. Mrs. Hale saw us out her window and came out to help me, but we were all the way back to Dolly’s stable by the time Mrs. Hale reached us. When I stepped down to the ground, Dolly was already eating hay at her stable stall. Mrs. Hale congratulated me for managing to hold on. She is nice like that.
Usually when one of us goes over to Dolly’s stable, Tam-Malacha, our Siamese cat, follows along. Tam will walk right into Dolly’s stall but Dolly fusses and stamps when that happens. Tam doesn’t seem to be afraid of Dolly at all.
Aunt Rose and Uncle Johnny came to visit today and they’ve never seen Dolly before. Dad and Noel go across the field to the Hale’s and it seems like forever before Noel rides across the field on Dolly to our back fence with Dad walking along behind. Pretty soon everybody, even Tam, is gathered around. Dolly really is a beautiful horse with a roan coat. [Roan is the word you use for the color of a horse that’s reddish brown.]
Tam is showing her lack of respect of Dolly by walking under the horse and around Dolly’s legs. I don’t think Dolly can kick fast enough to reach Tam. Dolly has tried but Tam is lightening quick so Tam just struts around holding her tail straight up – a big mistake. When Tam walked under Dolly’s head, Dolly swiftly reaches down and picks Tam up by the tail. Tam screams, hisses, and swipes sharp claws at Dolly but Tam can’t reach any part of the horse as Dolly stands there enjoying her revenge for Tam’s insolence.
We yell at Dolly and run to Tam’s aid but Dolly calmly holds our cat until she calculates the wrongs have been righted. Dolly lets go and Tam hit the ground running and was out of sight in seconds.
From that time on, Tam kept a safe distance from our thoroughbred that, like Tam, expected to be treated as royalty but, compared to Tam, enjoyed a huge advantage in size.