With that background, If you are not familiar with the story of Snowman, you might enjoy it and be able to relate to it also.
Sounds like a great story, thanks
Shovelling horse crap on weekends was the greatest job in the world for a high school kid back then, or at least I thought so. Kept me outside around the barns from before sunup until dark, paid for it too
I still recall the spring peepers (frogs) and the first phoebes (birds) coming back in the spring.
Horse crap and sawdust in enough quantities that I got to be an absolute ace hustling that Massey-Fergussen tractor w/front end loader down the aisles, scooping up a pile of horse poop/sawdust and throwing the tractor back into reverse in one smooth movement.
I recall exactly where I was when the news first came about Nixon resigning; I was double-clutching a battered old dump truck, coming back through the woods empty from the manure pile.
Anyhoo.... rich, pretty women and homosexual men; that was my impression of who was into eastern-style equitation back then. It was no mystery why a woman would find a 2,000 pound animal between her legs to be appealing. One of 'em even attempted suicide, slashed her wrists, when her horse died
Me, I was just a kid with a funny accent shoveling horse crap. Which is why them ladies who would bring their horses whole buckets of iced tea complete with ice cubes in summer would ignore us mere humans entirely...
While I know that Eastern tack and riding techniques lend an unrivalled degree of control and communication with the horse, I myself much preferred the Western approach, both for the practical riding and the surrounding cultural mindset.
Birdwatcher
