Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

I had a dream of horses and eagles by John Denver

In 1909, the first gold medal to a perfect-score bowler was awarded to A.C. Jellison by the American Bowling Congress. Are you good at any particular sport? Care to share a memory of your own with us? Or are you pretty not great at sports, and have a funny story about that?

My sport was always horseback riding. I took lessons in dressage, equitation, balanced seat. In the 60's I rode eventing with El Dorado Stable near San Antonio Texas. It was run by Lisa Russell. She was the owner and trainer.

There was one event I really enjoyed. It was held at El Dorado. I had always wanted a picture of me riding over fences on my horse "Tweet Hornet."

Hornet was a 16.2 hands blood bay with a black mane and tail. He was a king ranch bred quarter horse with lots of thoroughbred bloodlines.

There were 3 phases to the event, Dressage, cross country, and stadium jumping. Unknown to me my husband had asked a professional photographer to take my picture during the stadium jumping.

After Dressage and cross country there were two people tied with points it was a really close call. All I had to do to win the blue ribbon was ride a clean round in the stadium jumping. Every thing was going well until I hit the last jump--the photographer jumped out and took a flash picture as I came over the last fence. The flash hit me in the eyes. I sat back into the saddle, which caused hornet to drop one hind leg and tick the fence. We lost one rail off the fence which gave me an extra point. I lost the blue ribbon by one point. Even this was not such a tradgety since the second place in such a prestigious competition against some members of the current Olympic team was a great win.

The part I will always regret was my husband was so upset because of what the photographer did he made everyone promise not to tell about the picture. So I never saw the picture even if it was a good one. I found out about the picture months later when I overheard some riders talking at the stable.

Still, I remember the run that day over cross country and often can have the urge to ride a good horse any day of the week. I now ride bicycles and walk the dog and sometimes with lots of energy run up the drive way or across the field. My present horse is very old and won't be here with me someday. Now we just enjoy each others company while he sleeps in the shade. I had a very interesting life with lots of activity. Lots of reliable experience and information with which to write.