How do events in our lives become a part of others’ unforeseen memories?
We couldn’t have know the aging quarter horse, now retired to graze his days away, would spark a memory decades old and recall a love for an even older cowboy? 
As I visited with Chuck, the cowboy and 83-year old friend, I listened to his stories about growing up during the depression in South Dakota. One story repeated itself, that of is favorite horse, Bucky. Many times I’ve watched his clear blue eyes drift to the recollections of Bucky. After many tales of adventure, one story caught in his throat. He was hesitant to speak at first — a reservation born from another time and privacy earned by experience, but he finally shared the story of Bucky’s last ride.
Chuck was riding and gathering cows with his sister on the open prairie of the Dakotas, while a storm blackened the skies. As bolts of lightening danced across the sky, and one stuck down at the wet cows, sparking between their horns. A half dozen cows were struck dead, and in a millisecond, the bolt danced wildly off his sister, who was riding Chuck’s buckskin mare.
There is a pause in Chuck’s eyes as he takes back the fatal memory, allowing, “best horse I ever owned.”
How is it that a retired horse on our ranch meets and old man, and they share their gracious gratitude and remaining time with each other?
With no knowledge of Chuck’s memories, we “rescue” the old buckskin horse and unwittingly paired the two like souls, with their jagged teeth and lean features, to create an alliance of hope and love for life and each other.
Chuck’s spurs hang rusty, but life still glows behind the eyes of the man who can never forget a great buckskin horse.
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