Friday, April 4, 2014

Stormy 1963



Your indulgence please while I post something of interest to family and friends who knew my parents. My uncle Lyall Bright took thousands of 35 mm photos mounted as slides. Recently a cousin has started converting some to digital format. This is a picture of my late father and a foal he named Stormy.

Stormy's dam was a purebred Arabian and the stud an Appaloosa. As he grew older, he turned chestnut, white, and black. Pretty horse. However, he was never healthy and had to be put down. My father skinned the carcass and had the hide tanned. Used it as a throw piece on a couch while muttering about getting something to show for thousands in vet bills.

Shame, as the horse had a nice personality and moved well. Of course, he was as spoiled as a rich broad's poodle.

Now, about that fence. This was taken after I left the ranch. That fence never looked like that when I lived there.

4 comments:

Old NFO said...

Fences... sigh... HATE the damn things... and trying to keep em tight...

Well Seasoned Fool said...

The area gets 30+ feet of snow. A mild winter is two strands, normal winter four strands, and a hard winter covers the fence posts. My sister called May, "Green grass time." I thought of it as fix the damn fences time.

Anonymous said...

I believe that both of us were correct. Stormy was supposed to pay for the ranch and his vet bills put a real dent in that idea. I was the only one to ride him; in the 4th of July parade dressed as an Indian maid and being led by Dad dressed as a cowboy. He was a 2 yr. old when he died. Vet said that was the most interesting necropsy he had ever performed. He wanted to make sure what had made that foal so sick his whole life. Turned out it was a piece of baling wire that he had swallowed and it eventually worked its way out his flank. Then he got colic, twisted gut and we had to put him down.

Sisty

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Vet care has advanced since then. No X-ray equipment in the area in those days. And, he would have paid off the ranch. We had some bad luck with horses. Your jumper got killed by lightning.