Copper Horse

(Obligatory "This Is Mine" and "Any Similarity...")

I was 18, and in the Navy, NAS Millington. I had a
glorious start, but I was getting the tar beaten out
of me in training. I could barely make numbers work,
and I had had a couple go-rounds with a AW3 (he had
been an AW2) with short-timer syndrome, culminating in
a short but decisive action in a gymnasium after
hours. Then the jerk spilled his guts to the S.O. as
to how that nose of his got flatter than normal, and I
was given extra duty, and loss of liberty in a
"talking to" with my Chief. Assigned to the stables,
shoveling horse apples. I was on the only base in the
Navy with a horse battalion. I ended up knee deep in
something much talked of but seldom seen in the armed
forces these days.

Horses? On a Naval Air Station?

The Navy in conjunction with the county had a stable
for rescued horses-hard cases involving abuse, and
neglect. I was the manure pitcher for the 12-15 horses
they had. I stank from weekends of 16 hour days of
shoveling manure and working on roofs, stable doors,
painting-in short-hell.

One day I was sitting on the rail of the fence, eating
my lunch, and feeling completely down. My academic
scores were coming up, but not fast enough. I was
within a millisecond of washing out, to my eternal
disgrace. On top of that, I had watched, helplessly as
a good friend completely lost control of a water
exercise, and separated his shoulder. Not pretty. On
top of that, I had painted the wrong portion of a
wall, and gotten the chewing of a lifetime-then had to
strip and sand and repaint the whole damn wall again.
I was bone tired. I was blackly convinced I was next
to go, and I felt a complete failure. I sat on that
top rail and stewed.

Suddenly I was airborne. A horse had smacked into the
fence and me and sent me flying. I came up swearing
and spinning, Spitting dirt and gravel. And I saw the
brute. He was HUGE. Brown with a dark mane, and
puffing, blowing and making a hell of a lot of
noise-laughing I have no doubt. I Picked up my apple
and thought about winging it between his eyes. Then I
saw it. The horse had a long scar from his ear to his
shoulder. More across his rump. Only someone sitting
on the horse's back could've done this. Suddenly I
wanted to get my hands on the slime that had done
this. I walked slowly up to the big guy and fed him
the apple. Patted his nose, and of course, the one
moment I'm away from my own cares, I hear my Cheif in
the barn yelling for me at the top of his lungs

I thought a lot that night in my rack.I kept wondering
how long he had been owned by the slimy bastard.

I bought a bag of apples at the C-store, and headed
over to the stables before my muster time. There he
was, in his stall. I walked up, and realized the big
guy was watching me suspiciously. he turned the
unscarred side of his head twords me, and I held out
an apple. He popped his ears forward and slorp!
Bubbling and sighing he ate the apple. As he was
eating I noticed on the unscarred side some of his
hair was somewhat copper colored-just a patch-but it
gave me his name. "Hey Copper, have another apple!" I
fed him three, than I had to go to muster. I ended up
with the job of helping the vet give shots to the
horses-which consisted of a highly medical job of
holding the bag, or one of the harnesses. Three horses
later I was sent to unload feed from the pick-up, just
around the time Copper came in. As I was unloading I
heard a squeal and a thonk, and much bru-ha-ha. I get
over to the corral and the Vet's nursing a scalp
wound. I retrive my bag of apples and held one out-on
the opposite side from the vet, and the horse was at
me like a shot. "Look Out you dumb@$%*!" yells the
vet-I stand and hold out the apple-Copper grabs it on
the fly and calms down. Sticks his big head next to
mine, nose on my shoulder like a frightened kid. They
didn't get the horse his shot that day, but I made a
life-long friend. Nope, didn't whisper, but I did feed
him hay, and apples. Patted his forehead, rubbed his
nose.

Eventually, my scores went up, and I held on to a
comfortable upper 20% in my class. My Cheif calls me
in and is so impressed, he takes me off of extra duty.
Like Hell he does. I now am free on one day a weekend.
Didn't matter-I was at the stable both days, one day
taking my usual place shoveling end product-the other
taking care of, and eventually, riding Copper. Then
extra duty was done and I could spend the weekend
riding him! Heaven! It was like riding a hill! He put
me in mind of a Knight's heavy mount, and being an
overly romantic sort, I pictured us as such. Sort of a
nautical Don Quixote. Eventually, graduation rolled
around, and I had to leave him behind-it damn near
killed me on our last ride, and I bawled on his neck
for the last part of the trail-good thing we rode
alone- but the Stable master took great pains to keep
me informed on "my" horse.

He eventually went to a good home, right outside
Memphis. His new family were kind people, who had two
other horses from the same stable. All my heroes'
horses have been modeled on Copper-my "Platonic" horse.
My Copper horse.