the calling...

all of my horses picked me. it wasn't any different with pableu. from the first moment we spotted him, he started creeping into my mind. there was something 'special' about him the same way there was something individually 'special' about our other four mustangs. so, when cate and gary went back to twin peaks a few times right after we had all gone together and would come back with news of pableu's band, he would go to the back of my mind behind all of the other million things i was dealing with at the time and begin to make his way forward. when this happens you can feel them calling you. you see them, dream them, think you can feel and smell them and it gets more intense as time goes by. cate had this happen with a grulla mare and her filly from the same band and when we found out that they had all been captured in the gather a few weeks later, she went to the wild horse corrals at litchfield and saw them there. she gave me a picture of pableu and his mama and it broke my heart. after seeing him so fancy-free, so happy, living the way all horses should and then seeing him at the corrals was awful. i knew he wouldn't have trouble finding a home because of his colors but this bothered me even more thinking that some jack-ass would get him only because of that. so...it started. knowing full well that we couldn't afford another horse, his callings became louder and louder so i went with it and let it happen. in choosing not to fight it (knew better than that!) a dear freind offered to sponsor him. so the day before thanksgiving, on a biting-cold day, we drove to litchfield and picked up pableu, sage, the mare that wanted cate, and rosebud her filly. they told us at the corrals that some of the babies were sick but that ours looked okay so off we went. both cate and gary and i just wanted to get the hell out of there. if they were sick their chances of getting better and having a good life would be better with us and we knew it deep down. our ride home was slow but exciting and i felt like i was able to really breathe again. little rosebud...what a fighter. she turned out to be so sick! and as time passed, they all were. but with lots and lots of love, good medicine and doctoring from cate, they all got better, and i learned again, to trust what i know.

pableu and his mama 'crazyquilt' at the litchfield corrals