Tribute to a Trail Friend

Tribute to a Trail Friend

For a friend and stable-mate, who died this morning, after a long and valiant battle with cancer. A retired teacher, Nancy was a veteran horsewoman and the perennial trail guide for novices and just about anyone who wanted to explore the back acreage on horseback.

Photo c2008 by Nickers and Ink

Knowing Nancy

A seasoned friend, all full of heart,

Did recently from us depart –

Diminutive in form alone,

A horseman solid to the bone.

This trail guide from an age gone by

Was saddle-bold, but camera shy.

Accounting for her non-pretense

Was good, old-fashioned common sense.

Her friends and horses learned to watch,

Each time she raised the bar a notch.

We’d hold our breath and grasp each rein

To see her jump a fence profane.

Occasionally, in the dust,

She’d land, then spring back up, nonplussed,

To reconstruct the hurdle there,

Then spur her mount into the air.

‘Mid hounds and horses, galloping,

She proudly piloted her string.

Till, finally, her breath was caught,

And yet, she gave not up the trot.

She bravely fought the final scourge,

Which medicine could never purge.

At last, she mounted higher still,

To leave behind all earthly ill.

A Pegasus perhaps she’ll ride,

Residing on the other side.

And though we grieve her absence here,

Perchance she’s found a new frontier.

c2009 by Linda Ann Nickerson