Dear Joom,
Here I attach to you a photo of my horse Gaucho. Gaucho and I have been together for 17 years. They live up until 30 years.
Gaucho is in great shape but he is not the horse I used to ride in competitions. Those show horses are crazy and you have to be careful.
But Gaucho has always been my pet, the kind of horse you can ride around here in the groves of mango and avocado.
In this photo, Gaucho looks guilty because he decided to investigate the downstairs laundry room, which was open, and he knocked around some soap and trash containers, throwing it all on the floor.
I snuck around with the camera when I heard the banging and falling things, and caught him in the act. You can see how quilty he feels and how quickly he is leaving the laundry room.
Gaucho is a Spanish Paso Fino, born in Colombia and brought to the US. He has a wonderful gait, for example, he moves fast but the rider does not bounce on his back. He is very flashy and for an experienced rider, because he loves to show off. But he is not mean or dangerous.
I am very attached to Gaucho and he is my favorite horse.
I have a short story about Gaucho that will prove how smart he is....one day, we were riding on a trail and Gaucho became scared of a plastic bag that was flying around in the air, it was a windy day.
He swerved and jumped off the trail and right into a neighbor's plowed field. Luckily, I managed to stay mounted, and I was guiding him off the field when one of his feet just went down into the earth, lowering his front immediately and catapoulting me over his head. When I hit the dirt, he tried to stand up. He had put his whole leg into a twelve inch irrigation well.....now, with all his effort, he withdrew his leg which was not broken, thank goodness. Just then, I noticed that my fall over his neck had placed me in a bad position with the stirrup and my foot was caught in the stirrup. Gaucho trembled from his fall, and looked around to see me on the ground, attached to him by the stirrup. My heart started beating really hard; I thought that if Gaucho took off running in panic, he could drag my body for miles on the ground and this might even sever my foot from my leg.
There, from the ground, I talked to Gaucho and asked him to stay calm and not to move. I tried to rise on just one leg, but I couldn't get it positioned under me because my other leg was hanging straight up there on the stirrup in a twisted position. I could not get it untwisted. I made several attempts to get my foot disengaged, and I even kicked Gaucho on his belly accidentally. He trembled all over, I knew he wanted to run; but I begged him, please please help me, Gaucho, and don't move.
I took a deep breath, and dragged my body closer to Gaucho's foot. His leg was wet from the well water but he was unharmed. I grabbed his leg and slowly using my hands climbed up his leg until I grabbed his long mane and got my good foot under me. At this point I must have looked like a ballerina, one foot on the ground, the other leg pointing high as if on a ballet barre. From that angle, though, I was able to grab the stirrup and twist my foot out of it.
With both legs on the ground, a wave of relief and gratitude rushed over me. I held on to Gaucho, he was shaking and snorting, now I was shaking too, and we both stood there in that open field knowing we had avoided real disaster. Happily, both Gaucho's leg and my leg were intact except for a few minor scrapes.
I bent down to see the well, curious about something so small that could cause so much grief. I could barely see it; I parted some grasses, looking down for it, and all of a sudden I saw my face reflected in the water, surrounded by ferns. I pulled back in surprise, not aware that the water level was so close to surface.
As I rode back home on Gaucho, I remembered an old Arab prayer from the Koran....about why Allah created the horse: "I have made thee unlike any other...all the treasures of the Earth lie between thine eyes...thou shall cast mine enemies between thy hooves, but you shall carry my friends upon they back...this shall be the seat from which prayers rise up unto me."
And grateful prayers did rise from me as I rode my horse, whose love for me conquerered his fear and stopped him from running away when I needed him so much to stand by me.
So you can see why Gaucho is so spoiled around the yard, he eats flowers and I don't complain about it.
When Gaucho becomes too old to ride, he will retire under my care and not be ridden any more. I will watch him from the kitchen in the shade of the fruit trees, as he stands there waiting for a mango to drop. I will love him all of my days.
Hugs,
Diana
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