I was thinking about old times today because I found some Reminisce magazines that a friend gave me. I keep meaning to put them in the trash but I just can't bring myself to do it because, well, because they help me to think about old times.
If you put your brain into that gear it is just amazing what will pop up. What I came up with from my reach into the past wasn't about horses but it was about a dog in Reisterstown. It wasn't a fancy sort of a dog, just a dog and not a young one either. If I drove down Md. 140 from Carroll County and made the turn onto Md. 30 north, I would sometimes see that dog carefully crossing the road.
I always worried about him, you know? As it turns out, I shouldn't have.
I found that out when I was in Lindy's Drug Store there in the center of Reisterstown at lunch time one day. Lindy's had a lunch counter back then and I was sitting at it waiting for an ice cream soda I had ordered. A man was leaving the store and I saw him open the door and heard him say, "Oh, there you are. Here, I'll get the door for you." He opened the door and in came that old dog.
Without a glance at anyone, the dog walked to the far end of the lunch counter where I was sitting and then he just stood and waited.
I got my soda and whomever was behind the counter (even my memory doesn't go back that far) put some ice cream in a small paper ice cream cup and handed it down to the old dog. The dog picked up the little cup in his teeth very carefully and walked back to the door. Someone else opened it for him and he walked out still carrying his ice cream cup.
I must have had a quizzical look on my face because the person behind the counter said, "He does that every single day. He's done it for years!"
Back then I thought it was pretty cute. Today, knowing what I know about how things are these days, I am absolutely struck by the kindness of the people involved and by the fact that they simply did that good thing for an old dog. It wasn't the money for the ice cream or the cup that made any difference at all — it was that they were offering a bit of decent human kindness to an animal that counted on it to make his day complete. I don't even know if they knew whose dog it was — they just did it because it was a good thing to do.
But enough of looking backwards, it is spring and things are popping in the world of horses and people.
First things first for the month: if your Friday evening is open on April 7 (and it isn't snowing or blowing horizontal rain at your windshield) you can go to RSD Horse and Tack Auction up at Eyler's in Thurmont. You sure don't have to dress up, you can get that pitchfork or bucket you wanted anyway and the food is always really good. If it is warm you might even see someone you haven't seen all winter; you can even recognize them now because they have come out from under all of those winter clothes they hide in.
On April 8 and 9 there's going to be a hunter/jumper show at Country Hill Farm at 937 Leisters Church Road in Westminster. I don't expect you to suddenly take a wild hare and drag that old pony out of the field to ride it there but it would be fun to just go and see what's going on.
On April 9 there will be a Spring Thing Unrecognized Horse Trial at Full Moon Farm on Louisville Road in Finksburg. They are doing the Dressage and Stadium phases only (Starter through Training Level) because who knows what sort of weather we will have to make the footing either good/bad or indifferent on the XC Course by then.
On April 8, there will be a FADS Dressage Show (they list themselves as "casual and fun dressage shows") at Loch Moy Farm, 1235 Park Mills Road in Adamstown.
Loch Moy is lovely in itself and, if you go to www.frederickdressage.org/fads-photos.html, you can see Judy Smith — Friday's Horse in Ijamsville — on her mule Handsome Hank concentrating and looking very efficient. The picture is part of a revolving display so wait for it.
And, no, I have no idea whatever happened to that dog but I do know that you can still buy a subscription to Reminisce on the internet if you look for it.
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