redpinemountain.com

Hay Burners

When Mountain Man talked about horses, that’s what he called them, hay burners, or pasture ornaments, that’s another favorite expression of his.
There were horses on Red Pine Mountain about fifteen years ago and they left when his ex did and he vowed never again. Horses to him were just a plain nuisance. He explained to me people buy them, don’t ride them and then they just sit in the stall and eat and poop and cost money.
His ex wanted him to ride so he tried it once, even had a horse here for him but all it did was run off with him and try to kill him. He vowed never to sit in a saddle again and he thought anybody who wanted to have horses was just plain crazy.
“No thanks, no horses, no way. You want to go for a ride in the woods, then get a tractor,” he repeatedly told me.
Only problem was I love horses. My first word was horse, I started riding when I was three and as a young only child, I even pretended I had an imaginary horse. (I bet all of you have some embarrassing stories your mothers just love to tell strangers.) But even though I rode a lot during my childhood years, I never had my own horse. Then I got married, we were always on the move with the military, I had a family to think about and there was no extra money to indulge my desire to ride.
But when I saw Red Pine Mountain all I could think about was horses. Never mind it has been 35 years since I did any real riding. Red Pine Mountain cries out for horses. There are miles of logging trails throughout our woods which join to public trails which cover hundreds of miles. I was drooling over the thought of all those trails. And, there was a barn here where his ex’s hay burners had lived so we had ready made living quarters. I WANTED A HORSE!
We were at a standstill over this issue for quite some time. Our neighbors would ride by our house and I would wish I could be out there with them. I tried to explain to Mountain Man if I had a horse at home I would be riding all the time, I wouldn’t let it sit in the pasture and I would take care of it myself.
“Sure,” he said,”I know you think you will but that has not been my experience.”
“ I’m not your ex.” I tried to explain.
As our relationship deepened, so did Mountain Man’s understanding of my passion. But, I had to wait some more. I never understood the old saying “patience is a virtue” but it must be true because Mountain Man finally (hurray!) told me I could have my horse.
I wanted to go out that day and find a horse but he explained to me the old barn wasn’t suitable for horses any more due to drainage issues and he wanted to build a new barn.
That sounded reasonable, I wanted a healthy place for my horse to live but he couldn’t start the barn right away because he was busy with other projects trying to earn a living. Once again, I had to practice being virtuously patient but at long last he was able to begin work on the new barn.
I now have half of a barn with three beautiful stalls and in those stalls are two horses. Yes, two of them. Wow, I have to pinch myself every day to believe they aren’t my childhood imaginary pals.
And Mountain Man, he has learned that not all people are the same. The first day I brought home Moose, I started to cry. I couldn’t believe I was so lucky to actually be living my dream and there was a real live horse in the barn. I ran out there every five minutes to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, to make sure Moose was real. Mountain Man even told me if he had known earlier just how important horses were to me, he would have built the barn a whole lot sooner. Heck, he doesn’t even call them hay burners any more.
Yes, I had to wait but I’m not complaining.
All I know is dreams do come true and there are horses once again on Red Pine Mountain.