neighbors' gardens
and eat and tear up everything.
So
Walter said, 'Let's put
kite string out in a V from the stable, and then
close in on him.' It worked like a charm;
Pinkie thought it was an electric fence.
"One day we
rushed him too much, however, and
when Pinkie touched the kite string and
nothing happened to him, the jig was up. We
tried using rope instead
of string, with no success -- he
would gallop right through it.
"You
might remember Sam Griswold,
who lived in the first house on the right coming in
to our place. He had one eye
and had been a farmer all his life. Sam said to Dad,
'That horse of yours -- he needs a
good workout, to
give him some respect for his owner.'
"'I've never seen
Pinkie put in the traces,' Dad said.
"'Don't worry,' said
Sam. 'I can handle him.'
"In the field
beyond his house, just before you come to the mill race, Sam had done
some planting, and
it needed cultivating. The
cultivator was in the shape of a large V with long spikes sticking
down into the ground. Sam harnessed Pinkie,
and the horse seemed to accept it. So he
hooked Pinkie up to the cultivator
and tied the reins around his waist
-- a common practice in the old days,
as it left both hands free to
manipulate the machinery.
"Then
Sam said, 'Giddup!'
Well,
Pinkie went crazy and took off with the
cultivator in hot pursuit and Sam dragging
along behind it. You had to see it to believe it.
The horse tore up a half-acre
of potatoes, and Sam was lucky to come out
of it alive.
"Pinkie
also had a habit of swelling
up while you were saddling
him, then exhaling after you got on --
leaving the belly band loose. Once, Walter and I rode him
up the dirt road beside
the railroad tracks, intending to go swimming at the Old Dam.
As luck would have it, here comes a
train, and when the engineer sees
us, he blasts the steam whistle. Pinkie
goes into a gallop, racing the train,
and as we reach the turnoff to the Old Dam,
the horse sidesteps. Guess what happens to the saddle and
occupants?"
(Uncle Walter, anything
to add to this?)
-- Terry
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