My all time favorite movie.  I admired Scarlet’s drive and determination.  How she went about getting what she wanted, left a lot to be desired.  There is a lot out there against anything Confederate.  My feelings are that it is apart of history, even if it’s a bad part, and the South’s Heritage.  We can’t deny that, even if we don’t approve of it, but we should learn from our mistakes not hide them under a rug and say they never happened.

It’s windy here today.  As Indiana Jones hated snakes, I hate wind.  Oh a nice breeze on a hot summer day is wonderful, but a strong wind is something only people who have sail boats like.  Horse people, not so much.  People who have to deal with Tornadoes or Hurricanes are not fans either.  Golfers don’t like it because it takes the ball wherever it wants to.

Have you ever watched your horse on a windy day?  Their ears are up, eyes trying to focus, they are on full alert.  The Indians used to say they hear spirits on the wind.  Either they hear something we don’t, or they are trying to hear and can’t because of the wind.  I just get the feeling there are things going on all around me that I can’t see or control.  Strange, I know.

Things blow around in the wind, and horses don’t necessarily like that.  I don’t like that either.  Makes a mess.

Don’t under-estimate the power of the wind. (You may remember me telling about this before.)  We were out hunting on a Thanksgiving morning with 50 mile an hour gusts.  We shouldn’t have been but it was a tradition.  We just walked into a cover (clump of woods) and trees started snapping in half and falling.  One just missed the hounds.  We tried getting out of there.  It was the same distance if we went forward or back.  One snapped and got the horse and rider two horses in front of me.  It was the Masters daughter.  The wind was so strong no one even heard it crack, and everyone was looking around for a way out.  I called to the rider in front of me who was a doctor and took his horse and Bobs, who was behind me, and they got off to pull the tree off the girl.  The horse scooted out from under the tree as it was coming down.  She spoke to her father and said she couldn’t breath.  Those were her last words.  Her lungs were crushed.

I will not ride under trees or in the woods on windy days.  My horses won’t stand under trees on windy days.  Beyond the fact that your horse may spook, you may be killed.  Oh I know, “It won’t happen to me.”  Trees here in Florida snap and break on quiet days.  I will not relive that day ever again.  Wind gives me the creeps.

If your horse reacts bad in the wind, perhaps he knows something you don’t.  Be alert, we were, and it didn’t help us.