Thursday Throwbacks

I'm not quite sure where this item fits in the grand scheme of things, but Annie must have been proud of it.  

For some reason, I've never run across it in our boxes of treasures from times past.  Could be the fact that it was a supreme dust catcher might have kept it from attaining household prominence. 

Now, this WAS a treasure from times past:  a free horse, given to Annie by our family friend Judy Trenholm. His farm name was Casey, and I always thought of him as the sweetest, most down-to-earth horse I'd ever known. 

In fact, I always suggested that if more people behaved like this horse, the world would be a better place.  His personality and common sense were that special. 

He proved that many times over but never more dramatically than the day his two feet got stuck between the rails and ties at a railroad crossing with Annie on him. It took a vet (sedating him), several strong men with crow bars and a whole lot of helpful neighbors and friends to get him through that traumatic experience, but he kept his cool and made it to freedom just fine.

I'll never forget my dad watching the event and saying, "That horse is worth his weight in gold." A very true statement.  It was a very sad day when we lost Casey.   He was truly a great horse. 

Another great horse, albeit a bit ornery and impish at times. Rambo was Casey's barn mate from the time Casey came into our family as a 4-month-old colt.  At the time, Rambo was my dream horse, tall, handsome and charismatic under saddle.

The photo below shows Barbara riding Rambo to a reserve championship in hunt seat at a Regional Arabian show in Yakima. 

In his later life, Rambo functioned as a blind horse, having lost all but about 5 percent of his vision in two separate situations.  
Blindness did not pose too much of a handicap for Rambo.  I still rode him and with his buddy Casey watching after him, he never seemed to have too many problems. 

Rambo died from an aneurism about a month before Casey's passing  Some people say that after losing his lifelong friend,  Casey probably died from a broken heart.  I tend to believe that.  Both are buried side by side in the far field here on the Lovestead. 

Sometimes, there's no explanation needed when we run across these photos from yesteryear:  just a couple of cousins, Annie and Laura, having a good time on the Fourth of July.  These cousins still have a good time any day they meet. 

It's very seldom that we see Laura without a smile on her face, but I'm guessing most of the Brown family (Mike, Mary, Laura, Maureen) must have been watching  "Concentration"  or thinking about an upcoming Scrabble match when this photo was taken.  SO SERIOUS!

I like this photo because it reminds me of a couple of brothers who lived down Great Northern Road from us in the good ol' days.  They were champions----wrestling, that is.

Chris and Luke Feist dominated their weight divisions in local and state wrestling competitions. Plus, they were nice young men who have gone on to great success as athlete/military officer, respectively. 

Now, this photo was taken by my sister Barbara just yesterday, so it really doesn't fit in the Throwback Thursday category OR does it?

When someone of our foursome mentioned that this ride through my sisters' field reminded them of the long-running TV show "Bonanza," we were taken back to some fun times.  

And, when we thought about Little Joe riding a pinto, Laurie beamed from ear to ear, cuz her pinto is named Scout, just like Little Joe's.

We could almost hear the theme from Bonanza playing in the background as we rode somewhat four abreast.  

Now, we did not gallop across the open field, and three of our four horses were Appaloosas, but we probably shared as much camaraderie as the Cartwright family.

This group of riders includes, Sage Saccomanno, Laurie Tibbs, yours truly and one of my longtime sidekicks, Kari Saccomanno, Sage's mom and  relatively new Appaloosa owner. 

If this photo doesn't quite fit in the "throwback" category, it will some day.  Happy Thursday and enjoy a brief trip back with the video below.