{"id":2447,"date":"2012-09-04T16:41:39","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T23:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/?p=2447"},"modified":"2012-09-29T09:51:11","modified_gmt":"2012-09-29T16:51:11","slug":"a-dozen-stories-about-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/a-dozen-stories-about-horses\/","title":{"rendered":"A dozen stories about horses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Trying to catch up from the weekend … funny how fun can cost so much – here’s the next book \/ chapter … maybe you’ve already read it but take a look, it’s my favorite;
\nThe countryside through which they were now driving was heavy with green fields of tall cane, but occasionally there would be open pasture land with lush grass upon which cattle, goats and horses were grazing. Steve had thought it best to wait awhile before mentioning his desire to visit Azul Island, but the sight of the horses caused him to consider bringing up the subject at once. What\u2019s the sense of putting it off? he thought. I like Antago all right, but only as a place from which to get to Azul Island. I\u2019ve only a little over two weeks, and I might as well find out now if Pitch knows how I can get there.<\/strong><\/em>
\n Pitch had been quiet for a while but now he turned to Steve. \u201cSteve,\u201d he asked, \u201care you still interested in horses? I remember that as a youngster you sold me about ten subscriptions to a magazine I never wanted just because you were going to win a pony.\u201d Pitch\u2019s tone was hopeful again, as though he was still striving to find something of real interest to Steve.<\/strong><\/em>
\n \u201cYes,\u201d Steve replied, \u201cvery much so. I\u2019ve ridden a lot during the past year.\u201d<\/strong><\/em>
\n \u201cGood,\u201d said Pitch. \u201cI was hoping you would be.\u201d He paused a moment and Steve noticed an intentness in his pale blue eyes that hadn\u2019t been there before. \u201cI\u2019d like to tell you something,\u201d Pitch went on, \u201cthat\u2019s been of great interest to me of late.\u201d He paused again, and Steve waited impatiently for him to continue.<\/strong><\/em>
\n \u201cYes, Pitch,\u201d Steve had to say finally. \u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/strong><\/em>
\n \u201cDo you recall the picture I sent your father several weeks ago? The one of our rounding up the horses on Azul Island?\u201d<\/strong><\/em>
\n Did he remember it! \u201cYes, Pitch, I do. That\u2019s why I \u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/em>
\n But Pitch interrupted with evident eagerness to tell his story. \u201cIt was the only time I\u2019ve been to Azul Island,\u201d he began. \u201cOh, I\u2019d heard about it, of course; Tom spoke of it occasionally. And before I arrived here he had written me once or twice about wrangling horses on a small island not far from Antago. But,\u201d and Pitch smiled, \u201cyou know I\u2019m pretty much of a greenhorn about things like that, and I never really understood any of it. That is, not until I went to Azul Island with Tom and the others.\u201d<\/strong><\/em>
\n Pitch paused and glanced at Steve. Then, as though pleased with the boy\u2019s obvious interest, he went on: \u201cI remember that we all looked upon our visit to Azul Island as very much like a day\u2019s outing. And we spent the time there imagining ourselves as cowboys. I couldn\u2019t help thinking, as we ran after the horses, how strange we\u2019d look to any people from our western states. All of us, of course, were wearing our shorts and had on our sun hats because the day was extremely hot. We had no trouble chasing the horses into the canyon, because the island is very narrow at that point; and twenty of us, walking about thirty yards apart, I would say, easily forced the horses into the canyon. Tom was in charge because he was the only one who knew anything about horses. The rest of us were plantation men, laborers, fishermen and the like with no experience whatsoever in this business of wrangling horses. However, as I\u2019ve said, there was little to it, because Tom told us what to do, and it was he who selected thirty of the most likely looking animals to take back with us to Antago.\u201d<\/strong><\/em>
\n Pitch stopped, thought a moment, then said in an apologetic tone, \u201cI must tell you, Steve, that the horses are small, scrawny beasts and not very much to look at, really. But if you\u2019d seen the desolateness of that small bit of the island, with the sparse grass and only the few, meager fresh-water holes, you\u2019d wonder that they\u2019d survived at all.\u201d<\/strong><\/em>
\n Pitch paused again before adding with renewed enthusiasm, \u201cBut they have, Steve! Their breed has survived for centuries on Azul Island!\u201d His words came faster now. \u201cIt was on the way back from the island, with the animals crowded into the barge we towed behind our launch, that I first learned of it. I was sitting next to the photographer of our weekly newspaper, and I mentioned that I had been surprised to find so many horses on Azul Island. He mentioned, very casually, that these horses were believed to be descended from the ones that the Spanish Conquistadores rode centuries ago! I tried to learn more, but that was all he knew. His editor had told him, he said. It was just an assignment to him. He wasn\u2019t really interested. It shocked me, actually, because I\u2019ve always been so very much interested in Spanish colonial history that I suppose I assumed everyone else would be. To think that here was a breed of horse the Conquistadores rode, and which had survived all these hundreds of years, and no one\u2014not even Tom, who knew of my interest\u2014had thought it important enough to tell me!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

the rest of the story – 12th book chapter<\/a><\/p>\n

ride on! — tim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trying to catch up from the weekend … funny how fun can cost so much – here’s the next book \/ chapter … maybe you’ve already read it but take a look, it’s my favorite; The countryside through which they were now driving was heavy with green fields of tall cane, but occasionally there would …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[336,54,335,567,297,60,61,67,208,232,216,569,333,91,334,125,50],"class_list":["post-2447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-alec-ramsay","tag-arabian-nights","tag-azul","tag-black-stallion","tag-black-stallion-books","tag-black-stallion-literacy-foundation","tag-black-stallion-literacy-project","tag-cass-ole","tag-contest","tag-free","tag-horse-tales-2","tag-horses","tag-island","tag-kentucky-derby","tag-stallion","tag-stories","tag-walter-farley"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2601,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions\/2601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblackstallion.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}