Stormy and the gun

I think it's a day for another "horse" story. Like I've said, there a million of them!

My horses weren't thorough-bred, or pure bred stock by any means. Stormy, my first full size horse, was old when we got him. He was gentle, easy to ride and not particularly well formed. My mare, Lady, while not old, was probably part mule. She was mean. I also had a pony early on, Sparky. He was a shetland and he also lived up to the breed's nature: mean and unpredictable. Oh well, it didn't matter to me. I loved all three of them with every ounce of me. The rest of my family tolerated this, but I was the only one who would ride, feed, groom or have any attachment to them. I was teased pretty unmercifully at school about Stormy. Since I was in junior high during it was easy to traumatize me. I could easily be set off and I'm sure that's what many of my classmates had in mind. (Sort of like me chasing that chicken. I loved watching him chase me with wings spread wide, head out, clucking and running at me for all he was worth knowing he'd never catch me) Anyway, the boys often reminded me that the horse was 'swayback' good for dog meat, or the dog food factory. Ugly , slow...those are the names I vividly recalled. This always made me cry. My dad told me over and over that by reacting I was only adding fuel to the fire. I cried anyway.

Things came to a head one day with my brother, though. He was taunting me about the horse. I angrily told him to stop. He didn't. (He never did learn when to stop pushing those buttons) We had just gone inside the house and my anger reached critical mass. There at the door was a line of guns. I pulled one up and told him he should apologize or I would make him sorry. He threw up his hands, backed out the door and told me that the gun was loaded. (A loaded gun in the house? Yikes!) But I told him "Too bad" and pulled the trigger without really waiting for that apology. Fortunately for both of us the gun was a B B gun. (We were all used to taking our licks from a bb gun) I hit him in the side. And just like that my anger was spent. However, that was not the end of it. Big trouble next. I guess name calling isn't justifiable, even if it is a horse that you love. I'll let you imagine what happened. Just let me say that my father believed in spanking.

My kids have heard this story many times from different sources (both my brothers were there for this) and they have been properly horrified by my behavior. Me too, as I think back on it.