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…lower legs, black tails, and black manes; they had the bulldog
look of the foundation quarter horse. In terms of height and
weight, the father-and-son duo were identical, but Joel had no
trouble telling them apart.
With the arrival of Joel, the stallions knew that Harry and
feeding time wasn’t far away. In short order, each could expect a
generous serving of hay and some oats. Now, awaiting the
arrival of Harry and their morning meal, the two stallions entertained
Joel and his constant companion Buddy who had joined
him for the morning ritual. In anticipation of their feeding, the
stallions began to energetically move around their paddocks. In
unison and in harmony, they trotted to one end of the paddock
on either side of the board fence that divided them and then
pranced back. Occasionally, one of the stallions would stop to
twist or turn in what Joel thought was certainly an expression of
joy and their own unique greeting to celebrate the arrival of the
new morning.
As the stallions romped in anticipation of the new day, the rich
grasslands surrounding the home place started to come alive. It
must have been two hours since the birds started to respond to
the early rays of the sun, and perhaps an hour since the yelps of
the coyotes back in the hills greeted the dawn. Joel scanned the
horizon and spied the broodmare band and their foals down in
the meadow silently sipping from the stream and delighting in
the rich lushness of the marsh grass.
As Joel leaned against the top rail of Topsail’s Legend’s paddock,
he breathed in the majesty of the Montana morning. As
amazing as it was, everything that he was enjoying was in one
way or another linked to this stallion. The stallion had been the
heart of this operation. With his breeding days numbered
because of his advanced age, his son was continuing the legacy.
Topsail’s Legacy. It really was, wasn’t it?
Joel couldn’t get the memory of his daughter Amber out of his
mind this morning. Yesterday for the first time, he had told
Cindy about her.
Libros Libertad 