Boys And Horses

Three 20-year-old boys arrived the other day to pick up their horses for an eleven-day hunting trip.  They'd be camped out and they were dressed in their western best.  Only one of them had been a cowboy all his life, the others were learning and eager to be in that class. Their eyes sparkled in anticipation of the trip. They looked like young gun slingers who were about to head for Dodge to root out the bad guys.  Not an unusual scene, perhaps.  But the two who hadn't been cowboys were, in the past, young men in trouble, headed for a life of problems.  It was their introduction to horses that changed things. There is something about working with animals that can give a purpose to those who have none - young and old alike. Maybe that's one reason our ties with the old west are so strong.