A WINTERS NIGHT IN NORTH DAKOTA
 
 
It''s been a long day. Early in the morning I had got up to milk the cows, after that there was barley to grind for the pigs and as there were over two thousand of them it was a lot of barley.
 
After the evening milking I felt at a loose end, when I remembered Lady, the mare had not had any exercise for the last two days. So I got a length of baler twine, fastened it to Lady''s head collar and sat on her bareback. She took off like a rocket and as she was so sure-footed I just let her run over the frozen ground.
 
Lady was a really good specimen of an American Quarter Horse. She was acquired by the people I worked for at a very low price, as there was ‘something’ wrong with her. God only knows what? They had bought her very cheap. To me, she was always a lot more than perfect, I really liked her.
 
Off she galloped, down to what was known as Death Valley, a place were the Indians in former times had chased the buffalo down a ravine, in order to kill them. That is why the place got its name. The river valley was part oak trees and pasture and the frozen river winding its way in amongst the terrain enhanced its natural beauty.
 
Once on the frozen river Lady galloped on the ice that had a six-inch layer of snow on it. Her hooves made a most peculiar sound. She was full of confidence and I just clung to her with my arms round her neck, which kept me a little warmer. After all, the temperature was about ten below zero. After a time Lady started to sweat and slow down, I had no control over her whatsoever. That was the limitation of a length of balertwine, she did what she liked doing, running.
 
We went up the cliff onto the open prairie. The stars were out and the atmosphere was indescribable, a silence on this sea of snow. Not a bit of wind, an absolute calm. Every last little sound of Lady''s hooves could be heard, as well as some birds and deer from down by the river amongst the trees.
 
At a fast trot we headed for a farm belonging to a neighbour who had a television. I hoped there might be a cowboy film on as I used to really enjoy them. I could identify with them a lot, they reminded me so much of my early childhood in Paraguay. Arriving at the farm I inquired about cowboy films. "Oh sure," was the reply. I tied Lady up in the barn and went into the house. North Dakota hospitality soon revealed coffee, pancakes, turkey, dandelion wine, ham sandwiches with a lot more ham than bread and of course my favourite since arriving in the U.S.A. , tomato ketchup. And more coffee and more cowboy films! North Dakota had quite a few TV stations at the time and I was not the only one who liked cowboy films.
 
At the age of seventeen it is often very hard to be aware of time and I stayed far longer than I had realized. The weather had taken a dramatic turn for the worse. A tremendous storm, a snow-blizard had developed. In this part of the country conditions can change very rapidly. The farmer said to me; “Don''t go out in this weather.” “No, I must go”, I replied, I had to check the sows that are about to farrow and what would the boss say if I did not come home?
 
I found my way to the barn where Lady was still tied up. The wind had really made her nervous. In my three pairs of overalls I had a job to mount her. As soon as I was on her back she took of like a bullet across the open prairie. Lady galloped over snowdrifts, on bare black soil, I did not have a clue where I was, I could see nothing! Snow was drifting in all directions. I had never seen anything like it. I was not at all cold or scared. I was completely oblivious of the danger I was in.
 
I clung to Lady with the baler twine looped round my wrist, well behind my two pairs of gloves. It came to me naturally to hang on to the horse and if she should fall over hold on to that bit of baler twine so she could not bolt after a fall. The second time she fell over on her side in a huge drift. She rolled over me, so I lost my grip on her but I still had the baler twine looped over my wrist. After sorting out what was what, I had to get on her back again but as she was covered in fine dry snow and me with three pairs of overalls, aswell as a heavy pair of boots, I had a hell of a job getting on her as she was seventeen hands high.
 
I did not have a clue as to where I was? I was complletely dependent on Lady. We had another fall in a big drift. Again I had the same problem to get mounted but not until a most unusual thing happened. Lady pushed her head right into my body and drowned me in steam from her nostrils repeatedly. What on earth is she doing? Lady''s eyes were freezing up and to thaw them out she did that to me. With the wind-chill at minus fourty below zero Fahrenheit the wind made such a tremendous noise. I could not hear anything and because of the drifting snow I could see nothing either. Having been brought up in the tropics I was totally oblivious to the danger I had exposed myself too.
 
All of a sudden Lady stopped, I dug my heals into her sides, she just swished her tail, drew up her nostrils, then reared up at the front. What was it? Why would she not move? She then turned in a small circle; I then hit my knee on something solid. She circled again and I put out my arm and felt a timber wall. Lady stamped her feet and suddenly my foot rubbed along something like a board, and then a metal object. That was the door to the cow barn, still I could see nothing. I jumped off and started to feel my way about the door but so much snow had blown against it, I was unable to open it. I followed the wall of the barn to where the dairy was. I had to lead Lady through the dairy into the barn. Although she had never been in the dairy before, she followed me quite contentedly.
 
Once I found the switch to the lights, Lady and I went into a kind of ecstasy. The glow of the lights, the faces of the cows and their warm air, was something quite indescribable. Lady repeated the act of pushing her head into my body, which felt really good. Although I did not have a clue why she was doing it. Horses do this in the wild to each other when thire eyes freeze up. I really enjoyed her doing that to me. I put her amongst the cows, so she would be warmer. From above I got her a bale of Alfalfa hay. I had to go to the pig barn, that was some way off, so I decided to have a bit of a rest before I went. I sat on the opened bale watching Lady eat.
 
The next thing I knew was that someone was shaking me. What the hell is going on? I had dropped off to sleep and it was morning. Allan had come to see what was happening, as he could not hear the milking machine running.
 
Slowly, I started to communicate. As I was telling him more and more, he got really mad. I could see by his expression that he was in quite a temper, which was most unusual for him, as he always was a most tolerant and outgoing man. When all of a sudden, he shouted at the top of his voice; “Do you realize what you have done, what you have let yourself in for? You could have died last night! Every year many people in North Dakota die from the cold. Last night was one of the worst nights we had this winter and you have to go out on a horse! Believe you me, as long as you feel cold you are OK but if you don''t feel the cold anymore, that is when the cold is really getting a hold on you. If that horse had got away from you, you definitely would have died! Can''t you see how stupid you have been? You did not even know when you were next to the barn door. That horse kept you alive! Don''t you ever forget that!"
 
While all this shouting was going on Lady stood right next to us munching her hay. I''m quite sure she understood every word. Long before this event I always knew there was nothing whatsoever wrong with Lady. She was the best!