cowboyclown

Author(s) Name: Kevin / cbc
Title/Working Title: I Love Victor Too
Rating:G
Genre: Danged if I know… This is a word that for a day and forever I seem to stumble over. “john raw?”
Disclaimer(s): The identity (but not his name) of the horse has been altered to protect said horse…
Summary: One day in the life and times of cbc. This story was first submitted at E.Z. board “Peace and Boat Drinks” in 04

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I have seen many things and I have done many jobs, and most of what I have been involved with during my career has centered around a horse in one way or another.

About the first of August I received a phone call from a good friend’s wife. She informed me that her husband “Charlie”, needed my services helping him with his horse riding concession at a local mountain resort. With little to do I in no time found myself leading a seemingly endless supply of vacationing guests horseback on forested mountain trails in northwest Wyoming.

The job was really quite simple but at the same time quite taxing mentally and physically. Each day seemed the same. After wrangling the horses at first light, three of us would begin catching, graining and saddling horses for daily rides. Starting at nine in the morning, guests would start arriving at the corral for their scheduled horse ride. I mostly took out one or two-hour rides, and the parties I guided varied in number from as few as two to as many as thirty. Sometimes on the larger groups of riders, two or more wranglers would go on the same ride in hopes of controlling the little caravans of riders.

Not long into my new job I realized most of my guests would usually be new to horseback riding and more often than not scared to death of horses. So before long I began to focus on identifying individuals intimidated by the four-legged brutes they were boarding and try as soon on the trail ride as possible to belay their fears. I would often stop the group I was leading and turning in the saddle holler back to the string of horse back riders such things as “ hey, how’s the lady in the rear getting along on old Buttercup?”
I always would get the same answer “fine”.
Pretty soon others would start asking me the name of their horses and not long afterwards questions would turn from names to how to make a horse do this or how to do that, and before long I would see from the smiles on the faces of my guests that they were beginning to relax and enjoy their selves, and that meant I could begin to relax and enjoy myself.

I had been guiding horse rides at the mountain lodge for about two weeks when I met Billy. It had been a busy morning and as I headed out of the corral leading eight riders, I noted that a boy of about thirteen was right behind me on a tall bay horse we called Victor. There was something a little disconcerting about the boy’s smile but I didn’t really pay that much attention and continued to scan the rest of the party I was leading. Everyone seemed happy as I pointed them up a steep mountain trail that wound around our horse pasture, and since everyone was chatting to each other I felt comfortable that all were pretty relaxed with their riding experience.

After a ten minute steep climb along a path through dense lodge pole pine we broke out into a wildflower filled meadow. I glanced back noting the oh’s and ah’s from my band of happy sight-seers and couldn’t help notice the boy right behind me on Victor was still staring straight at me and he still had a rather odd smile on his lips. This kid wore a baseball cap backwards, a pair of sunglasses, and was kind of buck toothed and freckled faced. As we continued along I turned in the saddle and leaning on my horse’s rump, asked the boy how he was doing? The boy replied, “I love you daddy”.
I turned back around and thought “ man, I got a live one this time”.

As we started down a gentle slope and crossed a stream branch the boy behind me started repeating quietly over and over, “I love you daddy, I love you daddy”.
I was really starting to wonder what was going on with the kid when the man behind the boy caught up to us and said, “it’s okay Billy, I love you too.”
Not long afterwards I paused our group at a mountain overlook and while camera’s snapped shots of horse back riders back dropped by the Teton Range I quietly asked the man how his son was doing. The man told me his name and said Billy was autistic and that when he got scared he reassured himself by saying I Love you daddy. I asked Billy’s dad if he would respond to me if I asked him questions and the man said sure, and that Billy functioned at about the first grade level. He added that he was raising Billy alone and that he was trying to expose him to as many things as possible in order to prepare him for life. And as we rode along the father conveyed to me that he sometimes worried that he feared for his son because the boy always placed all his trust in only him and that no matter where they went or what they did, when Billy got scared he always depended only on him. And what worried the Dad most is that one-day he knew he wouldn’t be there for his son.

There are few absolutes in this world but one thing is certain, anytime you climb a mountain sooner or later you are going to have to go back down. This day and this trail ride were no different. I had led my group high up a forested mountain for spectacular views and now I began winding them back down a not so difficult trail but a steep one non-the- less. Going down hill horseback can be scary and not long into our decent Billy begun saying over and over I love you daddy, I love you daddy. His dad would answer from right behind him “its okay Billy I’m right here and I love you too”.
But Billy wasn’t reassured and began louder and more quickly stammering out the “I love you daddies” over and over.
I turned in the saddle and began talking to Billy.

Billy, my name is clown and do you know the name of the horse you are riding? Billy answered, “I love you Daddy”.
I replied, nope, his name is Victor. And then I started a nonstop one sided conversation with a little boy about the horse he was riding. “ Yes sir Billy, you are riding Victor, and Victor is an old campaigner at going up and going down mountains. In fact that bay horse you are riding is the best mountain horse I got. He’s packed more folks up the side of this mountain than any horse here and he especially likes to carry boys. That’s because he is a boy himself and he likes to be around other guys. And do you want to know something else? Old Victor has a kind heart. He would no sooner hurt his rider than hurt himself. And I’ll let you on to another little secret about Victor. Victor is safe because Victor never falls down. Why Victor is the most sure-footed horse here and that simply means you are riding the safest horse here.”

For forty minutes I carried on about the old horse carrying my special friend and during that time I noticed that the “I love you daddy’s” were being said less and less. During one of my pauses Billy finally turned in the saddle and looked back at his smiling Dad and said, “ Look Daddy, I’m riding a horse”.
His dad replied, “You sure are”.
Billy said I love you Daddy. And his dad said “I love you too son”.
We eventually finished our ride and after helping Billy and his Dad from their horses and saying our goodbyes I turned to Victor and began loosening his cinch. Billy walked up to the old horse and petted his neck and then hugged the old bay and said “I love you Victor”.
From behind me Billy’s Dad said he had never heard Billy say that to anyone or anything other than himself before. Just then, Victor turned his head and nuzzled Billy I asked Billy, “Do you know what Victor is trying to tell you by nuzzling you with his soft nose? He’s telling you that he loves you too."
Billy beamed back at his Dad and said, “ Daddy, Victor loves me and I love Victor”.
Billy’s dad said, “ I love Victor too”.

cbc

writeforfun

This is the best story I've read so far in my brief time on the boards here. It's a little flabby in places, but OK, overall.
I'm a sucker for good stories about compassion especially if they involve the handicapped or otherwise limited.
The prose is simple and clean and strong and the story is direct. You may have overreached a little at the end by making it too sentimental -- but again, it's about a breakthrough and animals have been known to produce such therapeutic moments in the autistic.
Maybe add some richness to the story with more carefully described scenery, using it to evoke the mood and direction of the story.
enjoyed!

cowboyclown

Thanks for the read Writeforfun. And by the way, that is a great username. This story took place a few years ago, I’d have to look it up I guess, but like so many events experienced in nature and with animals it really had an affect on me…guess that’s why I remembered it and wrote about it.

I am new to this forum as well, and with time permitting, and if I decide to be active here, you will notice in many of my stories my tendency to run on, to be flowery, and to be often pretty emotional. How good I am at it I guess will have to be determined by those who read.

Perhaps I’ll post a story here in a while that will maybe help illustrate my style. It is a work of fiction of an oral tradition passed down from my mother’s people, about a white buffalo, a lake, and the setting is in contemporary times. There is much repetition, a lot of run on sentencing in description. And much of this is intentional as a method to give emphasis, on the mood, and to color the images read, not unlike what happens when a oral tradition is read or spoken out loud as it can almost have a rhythm to the words thus giving a voice to the water, and land in the story.

Anyhow thanks for the read and suggestions as I was really beginning to wonder if on this new board my muse had somehow fallen into the “twilight zone”… cbc

Zensati

You needed to suck the reader in, In the first paragraph but it was too slowpaced and tame.

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