[AT] Spam> Re: Threshers and Horses

[bealke at airmail.net]

Y’all,

Must be thousands of old threshers in fields and barns, and I have yet to see an ad for one. Have seen maybe thirty of them sitting outside in recent years while driving around N. Texas and not looking for one. These included a few in front of suburban restaurants or malls for old timey decoration, which seems strange as few there seem to know what one is.

On the matter of horses, during the last real economic downturn with high feed prices, thousands abandoned their horses, especially in or near national parks and other wild, large areas where they could leave them with out being noticed. Complete outlawing of horse meat for use in dog food in the US did not help.
When I was younger and we had both, noticed that horses are like calves - their worth varies greatly over time, though in longer cycles.  
Used to help deliver hay and straw west of St. Louis as a teen and saw a decent share of the horsey set. A fair number of city girls with monied parents kept one in a suburban stable, rode it on weekends near the stable, and sometimes even competed with it in shows. The cost of keeping a horse was far cheaper if the 
girl cleaned the stall. Usually, most of these gals get caught up in boys and other distractions and lose interest by the time they are seniors in high school. 
In the country, where they can roam nearby in a pasture (no stall to clean), horses may be kept by a family for years even when seldom ridden, especially when there is an abundance of grass, not too much snow and easy access to water.  My take is that a fair percentage of the nation's horses are primarily big, expensive pets. Have met few women that don’t love or at least like horses. . 


Chuck Bealke
Dallas