She Had Some
by Rachael Waller
Horses
“…She had horses who whispered in the dark, who were afraid to speak.
She had horses who screamed out of fear of the silence,
who carried knives to protect themselves from ghosts.
She had horses who waited for destruction.
She had horses who waited for resurrection.
She had some horses.”
~ Joy Harjo (Creek Nation)
H
ow do you explain where the
wind blows? How do you speak
to the broken? How do you
convince them that you will try your
damnedest to make this horrible wrong
a right? How do you assure them that
YOU are the human who won’t let
them down…again? You learn to speak
horse, and in time if you listen long
enough you might understand more
than you ever imagined.
When I first met Jules she was just a
fragment of a horse, not really a horse at
all—the spirit had been silenced in this
small, river-type pony that carried such
sadness in her eyes. The sweet little
4
white star on her sun-bleached, bay,
skeletal body shone through the herd
like a diamond in the rough.
Jules was starved to the bone, and I
mean skin hanging off, hips sticking out,
the whole deal, riddled with wounds,
she had strangles, all a horrible combi-
nation. She had been through God
knows how many auctions and was left
with a herd of misfits in the July heat on
the border of Mexico to die—and some
did. Jules and her herd, whom we
called The West Texas 25, were kill pen
rejects. Some breezy evening in the
summer of 2011 Jules and her herd
mates went through our sleepy commu-
Cenizo
Fourth Quarter 2013
nity, with no one the wiser, headed for
slaughter on the border of Mexico, like
they do here every day. I have often
wondered what it was like for them star-
ing out the slats of a big semi in the heat,
going to hell.
I believe that horses know when they
are going to die. I have seen it in their
eyes, wide and bewildered, or broken
and low. The West Texas 25 were just
that, broken, low, no energy, some gave
up, some were almost there, and others
kept hope alive.
Jules and her herd came to our ranch
in a flurry of media, naysayers, critics,
but most of all an amazing community
of family and friends. The Big Bend
area stepped forward to help us with
this herd and the others that trickled in
every now and then over the months.
We aren’t a rescue; we are just a family
in the film and photography business
who happen to have horses as cowork-
ers in what we do. We believe in the
spirit of the horse and the healing they
bring. We know horses, so we thought
we could help this herd and we opened
our gate to all 25 of them. After the first
week, between the moves from the pen
to Marfa via the Sheriff, then to the
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