My mom shared this picture on Facebook over the weekend. I have no idea why. It hangs on her wall along with a few other shots of me and Cherokee and pictures of my sister and her sports. They’ve hung there for years. I’m not sure what triggered her to share this particular one at this particular time. It’s funny how you walk by a picture all the time and think nothing of it but then all of a sudden you see it in a different light and it brings back so many memories!
The girl who had owned Cherokee before me commented on Facebook on the picture. She stated she has a picture of her with him that is almost identical to this one. For some reason it dawned on me just how hard it had to have been for her to sell him. Alice lived in town and kept Cherokee in town and would ride him all over. Everybody was familiar with him. He was a calm, gentle soul and you could walk right up to him and pet him. But then she was going away to college and had to sell him. I wanted him so bad but Dad and Mom said no. Money was tight and it just wouldn’t work out.
But then they surprised me – and he was mine! I would go over to Alice’s periodically and she taught me all about how to take care of him and how to ride him. Her sister had a pony and we would ride around town on them. I don’t remember how old I was at this time. I think we had the acreage but still lived in town so I would have had to be 10 or younger. I don’t even remember the day they brought Cherokee to our place. I just remember thinking I was probably never going to see him again and then one day he was mine. We had him for years and I remember when Mom called and said Dad had found him down in the timber and he had died. I was married and had my own family by then. He had gotten so old you couldn’t ride him anymore but it didn’t matter. He wasn’t going anywhere. He was loved beyond measure, first by Alice and her family, then by me and mine and he was part of the family. That acreage was his home.
I remember Alice would come home to visit and she would come out to see him and to ride him. I can’t imagine how hard that had to have been for her. To have to sell him and then to come home and visit him. I was young enough that I didn’t appreciate at the time what it must have been like for her. I was too exctied to be getting him, I wasn’t really thinking about her losing him. We both have such great memories of this old horse. He touched the hearts of two young girls – he was one special horse!
Lindsay’s horse, Sandy, is now too sway backed to be ridden. She’s 28years old! The joy she has given countless numbers of friends and family, is something beyond measure. It’ll be a terrible day when she dies.
Thank you for sharing this photo and your memories of your special horse.