Hail is for horses

This picture may look like a horse grazing in the field on a sunny spring day, but here in the land of “unbridled spirit” it is much more than that.

This is not a mere horse, it is a quadra-hooved supernatural being capable of taking a man to the furthest edges of heaven while never leaving the earth. He may look like a lesser mammal, but don’t be deceived, this creature may very well understand the secrets of this life better than a nuclear physicist or astute theologian.

Sure, he eats off the same plate that he craps on (there's a regal simplicity in that) and doesn’t have an opposable thumb, but he probably made more money in his prime than most people make in a lifetime. He took his cut in carrots most likely.

He descends from a lineage of demigods, neighing Titans that carried human civilization through its infancy. His ancestors helped teach us to walk as a society before we became a well-oiled contingent of pistons and petroleum and relegated our omnivorous brother to the track and the stable.

So today, I pay my respects to Mr. Ed, Secretariat and my friend Flicka, for racing the wind, for hauling the wagon, for fertilizing the grass.

In the words of the original John Stewart, “Let the big horse run.”