Crazy "Lady"

I pretty much skipped over the first white (Albino) horse we called Lady. Except to say she was "no lady". Let me tell you more about Lady. The day we looked at her, she was fine. I was able to ride her, she seemed gentle. No kicks, no bites. She just seemed to be an 8 year old riding mare. I'm not sure when the trouble started. She had a pen in the barn, but also spent most of the time out in the pasture with the black cattle. That amused Dad, all his black cattle and one white horse in his fields. He kept telling me she looked out of place and we needed to get rid of her. He was teasing, but that teasing became serious when she kept getting meaner and meaner. Dad could ride her anytime, but he couldn't always control her. The more he whipped her, the worse she got. A lot of horses will swell their bellies when you put the saddle on. If you aren't alert, you will find the saddle you thought you had tight, isn't tight at all. Dad taught me to knee her in the belly hard enough to make her breathe, or wait till she had to breathe and time the tightening of the saddle before she could take another deep breath. This usually shows a horse who is boss, but this is one horse who didn't believe it. She believed she was boss and continued to fight us to prove it. Still there were days when she acted just fine. When I could ride her all afternoon without any problem. A psychotic horse. Not just with me, the child. She made things hard for Dad and Mom. I have a vivid memory of my Mother trying to ride Lady one day when Lady was really crazy. First Lady reared up over and over. I still don't know if Mom was that good a rider or just too stubborn to let go. Then Lady got the bit in her mouth and took off. She tried to knock Mom off under the apple trees. Then she reared again under the tree. Mom hugged the horses back and stayed put. Meanwhile she was beating Lady with a stick. Lady finally got winded and had to stop. Mom got off the horses back and said that was it, the horse had to go. She wanted to take her to Quaker Oats where they made dog food in our town. I remember another time when Dad was on her back. It was before the front porch had been turned into my bedroom. It was a concrete porch with a roof, about 10' by 14' with three steps on one end. Dad was trying to force Lady to go where he wanted and he took her up those steps and made her jump off the other end. The ceiling wasn't that high and I remember my Dad leaning forward on her back under that porch ceiling. I was proud that he could still control her in such an awkward position. Dad had broken horses in Iowa and also ridden in the rodeo when stock was taken by train to Colorado. (That's where he was when the house burned in Iowa.) I wondered how someone who was so good with horses didn 't want them on his farm. I still don't know the answer to that.

Before she got bad, there were a few things I remember. When we first brought her home and let her out in the pasture with the cattle, a neighbor phoned to tell Dad to go check his cattle. This neighbor swore there was a deer with our herd. Dad told me he, "didn't know J drank" Lady also "adopted" a calf. This calf followed Lady everywhere and Lady wouldn't let anyone else near the calf. Dad wondered later is the horse wanted a colt and that was part of her "Problem" I had a friend over one winter day to ride. Lady had been pretty well behaved, and this friend had ridden before so I thought we'd be ok. We had her in the barn, putting on the saddle and I didn't pay enough attention. P had put the saddle on, and I didn't see Lady swell up. P was going to ride and I planned to lead them out of the barn before turning the reins over to P. When P put her foot in the stirrup, Lady was still puffed up. P swung her foot over and Lady let out the breath in a whoosh. The saddle started to slide down and P lunged to get to the horses back instead of falling. She didn't fall on this side....she went clear over Ladys back and landed on the ground on the other side. I laughed so hard.....and when P got her breathe back, she was laughing too. I never saw anything like that. Between her winter clothes and the straw on the barn floor, P wasn't hurt at all, and Lady actually just stood there. She didn't even kick at us. We finally started over, I saddled Lady and P got her ride.

The day a man answered Dad's advertisement to sell Lady, she was on good behavior again. I rode her all over the barnyard so the guy could watch her move. He rode her and she was as good as the day we bought her. I always wondered how long he had her before she went psycho again. I kept thinking those first few days that he could call us and want to bring her back and get his money back. Dad said after seeing me ride her, he wouldn't dare admit he couldn't handle her.