Stamp

When I was sixteen, we had two horses named Lady and Little Lady. Lady was an American Saddle Horse. Little Lady was her foal, half American Saddle Horse and half Quarterhorse. My dad had worked for the Ute tribe as a foreman for their cattle ranch. He lost his job because they decided that they wanted to have a tribe member as boss.

In willow creek canyon, we lived a life without water or electricity. We used generators sometimes in the evening. And, every two weeks we would haul water for drinking and other purposes. Because we had to be careful of our water supply, we would wash our clothes with ditch water. We would put the water in big barrells and sprinkle alum over the top. In two to three days, the mud in the water would sink to the bottom. I would scoop out the water and handwash our clothes.

But, when I turned sixteen, we left willow creek and took our horses with us. We lived in a mobile home on some land a few friends had let us borrow. We would let the horses run in the field and then two or three times a day we would lead the horses to a small creek beside the road. In the afternoon, I would take Little Lady and my sister would take Lady to the creek.

One day, a small truck drove by us. As we took the horses down to the water, the truck stopped above our heads and let out a big bang.

The horses, who are nervous by nature, began to stamp their feet and swing their heads. The truck let out another BANG. We heard young male laughter coming from the truck.

"Go away," I yelled.

Little Lady tried to pull away from me. I knew that she was about a thousand pounds. If she got away from me, she would hurt herself or worse. I held onto her lead and tried to sooth her.

At the third BANG, she rushed at me. I turned as she ran past and held on. She turned again and came right at me. I turned with her. We did this several times until she slowed down. My heart was beating heavy. Finally, she stopped to catch her breath. She pressed her head against my shoulder. I softly rubbed her nose.

Weekly Anamnesis