I got my first horse, Midnight Trumpeter ("Trumpet"), when I was nine, living in Novi, Michigan. He was a two year old Arabian/Standardbred black roan gelding with white stockings and a blaze. He came from a track where he was being trained as a trotter and was only green broke. My Dad and I saddle broke him together and my life on the trail began!
I love Arabians - they're the supermodels of the horse world, with their sculpted cheekbones, flared nostrils, slender necks and flamboyant tails.
I received a book, The Life, History and Magic of The Horse, as a gift from a family friend when I was eleven years old. (Thanks, Trish!) This excerpt comes from the book and has been treasured by me for years.
The Horse of the Koran
"When God created the horse, he said to the magnificent creature: "I have made thee unlike any other. All the treasures of the earth lie between thine eyes. Thou shalt cast mine enemies between thy hooves, but thou shalt carry my friends on thy back. This shall be the seat from which prayers rise unto me. Thou shalt find happiness all over the earth, and thou shalt be favored above all other creatures, for to thee shall accrue the love of the master of the earth. Thou shalt fly without wings and conquer without sword."
The KORAN (An English translation, London, 1880)
This explains a lot.
Greta and I just returned from a trip to the park, where I enjoyed another chapter in the book I'm reading on the history of Galveston.
Chapter 3 talks of the Karankawas Indians, of which I must surely be a part.
"La Salle's men referred to this tribe contemptuously as "the weepers," but these crying fits were not a sign of weakness. Indeed, they were as much a part of the culture as saluting or bowing or making the sign of the cross was in Western culture. Conversation within the Karankawa culture must have attained a high art: even a simple request or complaint among tribal members was preceded by the shedding of mutual tears. When a Karankawa visited the hut of a neighbor, the visitor and the host went to the middle of the room and squatted on mats. Without speaking a word, both wept bitterly for half an hour."
"Karankawa is not the name this tribe gave itself. Like most other North American Indians, they called themselves men, people, genuine people, human beings, or bodies. Other South Texas tribes assigned various names to these newcomers. The Lipan-Apaches knew them as "people who walk in the water," and others called them "wrestlers" or "without moccasins." But the name that stuck came from two Indian words - karan (dog) and kawa (to love). Since the tribe traveled with small, barkless, foxlike dogs, it became known as the dog lovers, Karankawas."
Most know me as a dog lover, and much of my family can attest that I am the "crier" in the family.
Think the next time I'm home I think I'll have to look for a Karankawa arrow head fashioned out of a seashell to add to my BOI necklace!
