Dear Editor,
I enjoyed the story about your horse. I know how much they are a part of the family. I wanted to share this with you. She was a great one and one of the family.
Delilah was truly an extraordinary animal. She was certainly more than a horse; she was part of the family. We acquired her after she retired from being a trail horse. All the neighborhood children would come to ride her. In fact, she had regular neighbors that fed her carrots and apples.
We quickly found out she was very intelligent as well. Her skills included the ability to open gates and doors, which made us get creative on our latching systems. And Delilah wasn’t shy about letting us know when she was hungry. She would pick her feed can up and bump us when she wanted to eat.
She was also pretty smart with the other horses. In the corral area, we keep an
electric fence up. She quickly learned to “manipulate” the other horses to test the fence. This could be by pushing them into the fence or coaxing them. Later, she learned to actually put her face up to the fence to listen for a hum.
This creative thinking also carried over into riding. In her later days, when she was tired of being ridden or just didn’t want to mess with it, she would actually fake a limp. We were concerned about her limp until the first time we saw her sprint across the field limp free after the saddle was taken off.
Besides being an exceptional part of our family, she provided us with a beautiful baby horse. In fact, she had twins but one of them died at birth. Her living colt, Sassafras, carried that same creative spirit.
Delilah passed a few years ago at the age of 33. We still have horses today, but none have been so special as Delilah.
Carol Tuckerness
Willard, MO
Editor’s Note: Ozarks Farm & Neighbor welcomes all signed letters to the editor. Letters to the editor are published on a space available basis. You can mail your Letters to the Editor to: PO Box 1319, Lebanon, MO 65536, fax them to 417-532-4721 or e-mail them to [email protected].
