BEADED HERON

It has been over 3 weeks since I lost him.  I am still crying my eyes out.  It is so hard going outside and not having him greet me with his nickers after galloping to his feeding area as fast as he could when he would spot me coming out the door.    Life without a horse is very different than living with them.  There is something missing.  The something is huge.

Bucko and I began living together  in June 1981.  It was Memorial Day weekend when I first met my big shiny copper colored boy.  In the news at the time was the death of Bob Marley and his 50 mile long funeral procession to the community of Nine Miles Jamaica, where he was born.  It was my birthday weekend when I first laid eyes on him.  I had heard about Bucko a week or so earlier from a friend who saw him at an auction, where he was not sold.  I was living in Minneapolis at the time and packing for the move back north when the phone rang...."Hi it's me", said my friend Diane.  "I saw the perfect horse for you at an auction today and when you come we have to go see him.  If you don't buy him I will but I will let you have a chance at him first and if you buy him and ever decide to sell him you have to give me first crack at him".   Dianne already had an awesoem horse named Duke so she didn't need a Bucko as much as I did.   I was in the process of moving to a farm that was owned by Dianne's mother who was also a friend of mine.  Char had succumbed to cancer a year previous.  

I was immediately excited!  If Diane said she saw the perfect horse, I believed  her.   It had to be true.  At the time I didn't know which was more exciting!  The prospect of moving back home or knowing I was going to go see some horseflesh that was spectacular and could end up mine!

The week of the move north was met with much anticipation.   The packing and the planning and the  organizing the caravan of trucks that would move my things home to northern Minnesota combined with meeting the wonder horse had me jumping out of my skin with excitement!  I remember it like it was yesterday...

Upon my friday night arrival to my new home, as the unpacking of trucks and boxes was taking place, what I most wanted to hear about was the horse I would see in the morning.... 

More soon