A lasting gift
Equus|Spring 2020
As my mare grows old, I’ve come to appreciate things about her that the passage of time can never really take away.
Eliza McGraw
A lasting gift

My old horse has picked up a new habit. She rests her chin on my shoulder, pressing down and holding still. Sugar is 27, a 15-hand Paint mare with two white stockings and an ample blaze on her face that makes her look like a Disney horse. Her mane is a little thin these days and her back is swayed, but she’s sound and healthy.

Sugar and I still putter happily around the ring and spend hours on the trail. She demonstrates her displeasure at walking through any kind of standing water with complex but predictable footwork: splashing with the first foot in, and then attempting a scoot-away maneuver. After more than a decade, I still make a point of forcing her to walk through calmly. “Puddles? I’ll show you puddles” is my training philosophy.

With Sugar, virtually all situations unspool at a pokey rate. I tense up when loose dogs race by, but Sugar doesn’t care---about the dogs or the tension.

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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Spring 2020-Ausgabe von Equus.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

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