In the life of every red-blooded American boy, there should be at least one super-good using horse; ideally one that the boy helped birth and raise. This animal should be a filly because the female of the species is smarter and more tractable than the male. With this being true, we must allow that beast to be endowed with a supernatural or mystic quality that makes her almost human. I have owned several members of the horse family in my life that could have been classified as a super horse. The most outstanding one was indeed a filly called Honey Gal, foaled and raised on the edge of the Sabine Riverbottom... ...which is truly "God's country." Named Honey Gal before her birth, this filly became part and parcel of my childhood. As time passed, I did indeed find more and more times when I knew exactly what Honey Gal was thinking-and there were times when she reacted to what I was thinking before I even gave a verbal command. Perhaps she was only reacting to my body language, but I chose to believe, in my child's mind, that she was actually listening to me think. Of course, in our superior farseeing adult wisdom, we all know that Honey Gal never spoke out loud to me. Nevertheless, we conversed in ways... ...that a non-horse-lover cannot even imagine. Please allow me the privilege of believing that the Honey Gal that was part of Dub's life was the best companion, the best help with cattle and hogs that any boy ever possessed in that part of the Sabine Riverbottom. If an adult loses his or her childhood imagination, his or her quality of life is diminished. So, with that point made, herein Dub has a wolf-dog called Ring that he talks to and with. Also he now has a filly called Honey Gal that he and Ring both converse with. Relax, let your mind soar free from the steel trap of conventionality, and enjoy the story.
