Can this come true? Read on...
It is 2080.
A grandfather sits on the front porch of his daughter’s suburban home, his 7 year old grandson by his side. He could hear the hum of electric cars from the nearby highway, and occasionally a cricket chirping from its perch at the base of the porch.
His grandson was studying the screen of a Kindle in his lap, showing a dapple grey pony with the caption of “Merrylegs”. The grandfather recognized the Black Beauty story, re-written into 2nd grade words.
The boy touched the Merrylegs image gently with one finger.
“Grandpa?”
“Yes, Josh?”
“They used to ride horses, didn’t they, back in the old times.”
The grandfather looked up, noticed the blue of the sky, the lacy branches of spring buds in the trees and small white clouds skittering across the horizon.
“Yes, we did.”
“Why don’t we ride them now?”
The old man sighed, and stared at a neighbor controlling his robotic mower as it silently sliced across a green lawn. His eyes returned to the electronic image of Merrylegs in Josh’s lap, rubbed his worn jeans and then his thinning hair.
“Well son, it’s complicated. I rode my horses up into the mountains on a spring day and there wasn’t a better time. I had an old stallion that would produce the best fillies stamped just like him, and they beat every horse in the show ring. I got up every morning waiting to get on my horse.”
But let me tell you how it all changed, slowly over time……”
What do you think about the state of the horse industry - both from a participant and a professional standpoint? What are our weaknesses? How can we change them? What are our strengths? How can we perpetuate them?
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
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