The Horse Swing

There was a horse swing in New Jersey. I've never seen anything like it since. It moved forward and back and had a horse head in front. You put you feet on the bar (stirrups) and your hands on each side of his head where another bar went through. Pushing with your feet and pulling with your hands the long board you sat on could hold all three of us and move what would be sideways if you looked at todays swings. In other words the swing moved from a side support to the other side. It was long and there was only one "horse" We brought it back to Ohio with us and when we outgrew it, it stayed at GrandDad D's farm for all the cousins to ride.

In my early teen years, my brothers and I made another "horse". I had a horse by then and a saddle. But, we learned, and loved to ride bareback. My Gypsy (the horse) was ornery and we knew better what he was going to do next when we could feel his muscles bunch. So the saddle was just laying around. One of the boys took a very large and long rope and tied one end to the branch of our big oak tree. The other end was wrapped around the trunk between shoulder and waist high, leaving a loop from above and aroung the trunk. Then we wrapped burlap bags around and around and built them up till we had a body big enough to hold the saddle. By trying twine around the rope just above the saddle horn, a few jerks could send the saddle bucking. This was great fun and something our neighbors spent a lot of time enjoying with us. Sometimes it took two kids jerking the twine to buck a good rider off. The "rider" only had the saddle to grip and the horn to hold on to. And, the ground was just as hard as falling off my Gypsy.

Back then we all knew how to find our own games. No one would dare get bored, or our parents could find farm chores for us to do. We also had a sixth sense about which parent had work for us to do, and we would disappear to the neighbors farm for our games. I am still amazed when I hear a child today talk about being bored. Where is the imagination that was second nature to us? Maybe it still exists out in the country....I miss that. Here in town, if the kids are not bored, they are probably in trouble. The worst trouble we ever got into was being ornery. Though some of those games could have gotten us hurt, it was normal and good. We were not over protected and we learned life's lessons well. Something to think about today.