{"id":17773,"date":"2022-04-20T00:33:06","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T00:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=17773"},"modified":"2022-04-19T19:35:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T19:35:54","slug":"worthless-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/20\/worthless-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"Worthless Horse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bryce Angell – The outdoors has always been a large part of my life. My father was an outfitter and guide for 35 years and I was there to shoe and care for the horses and help him do the cooking. We took many great trips into the Yellowstone area. Even now that I\u2019m older, we still ride into the Tetons, Yellowstone and surrounding areas. My poems are mostly of personal experience. I am now retired and enjoying life to the fullest. I plan to do more riding and writing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some time ago I had a horse, a kind of dappled gray. His father was Arabian; his mother, who can say?<\/p>\n

His real name was India, we never called him that. We named him Indie just for short. We should have called him Brat!<\/p>\n

His body was magnificent. He walked with head held high. Yet he was scared of his own shadow, and we never found out why.<\/p>\n

One day while riding on the trail, that horse thought he\u2019d skedaddle. He whirled around and took a leap with me still in the saddle.<\/p>\n

Thank heaven for that big pine tree that stopped us in the air. If it wasn\u2019t for that conifer, we might have died right there.<\/p>\n

Well, Indie made it back again without a single scratch. I lost my coat and saddlebags. That horse was quite a catch!<\/p>\n

The other riders said to me, \u201cYou should let Indie go. The next time that you\u2019re riding him, he\u2019ll stomp you, don\u2019t you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

I said I\u2019d give him one more try. Each horse deserves a chance. I\u2019d see if he would come around. I had to take that stance.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t but a day or two, a doctor friend and I, were riding on the river\u2019s edge.\u00a0 <\/span>Who knew my time was nigh?<\/p>\n

Well, all at once a deer jumped out. Old Indie leaped up high. I came down on the saddle horn. I tried hard not to cry.<\/p>\n

My doctor friend rode up and said, \u201cHey, Bryce, are you all right?\u201d I said, \u201cI\u2019ll sing soprano if I make it through the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

He checked me over, spoke again, \u201cI have some stuff for pain.\u201d I moaned, \u201cNo thanks, just shoot me now before I cuss in vain!\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, Indie\u2019s gone. I sold him cheap. I think I got a deal, \u2018cuz he was bound to spook again. Next time I might not heal.<\/p>\n

Goodbye old horse. Good riddance.\u00a0 <\/span>Your owner\u2019s been informed. Although you are a beauty, your mind must be deformed.<\/p>\n

A skittish one like Indie, you don\u2019t forget, of course. And I wonder how they\u2019re doing\u2014new owner and old horse.<\/p>\n

So I check the papers every day. The obits I peruse. And thank the Lord that neither one has made the daily news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some time ago I had a horse, a kind of dappled gray. His father was Arabian; his mother, who can say? His real name was India, we never called him that. We named him Indie just for short. We should have called him Brat! His body was magnificent. He walked with head held high. Yet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-cowboy-poetry","7":"category-commentary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17778,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17773\/revisions\/17778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}