Even Cowboys Carry Cell Phones

To Pray at the Altar of this Horse

32 C a r o l G u e r r e r o - M u r p h y To Pray at the Altar of this Horse You must scratch his withers before you bend your neck before you push your head into his shoulder. You must brush the mud on his coat with curry comb and bristles for he rolls in puddles and ditches. You must pick gorse out of his tail with apologies for he prefers to sleep tangled in the bush when it’s cold. You must accept his hooves into your hands to pick them. You must clean his sheath and foreskin respectfully. You must teach yourself to be a handmaid who wipes his eyes, strips gnats from his ear-linings, massages his scars and checks his teeth and feet. When you pray at his shoulder, you must accept the odors of mouth and tail, must adore the smell of his skin. When you pray, you must joyfully breathe hair and dust into your mouth and be grateful. After he is clean you must give him an offering— oats or graham crackers or alfalfa hay. You must revere the vet and the farier, his priests. To pray at the altar of this horse you must hope for good weather, for whether blizzard or choking cloud of brown wind or painful sun you must find him far out in a field and when you approach him you must look down aside. You must ring the bells of the halter buckles, you must square your shoulders and stand strong and never get under his feet without his knowing. 33 At the altar of this horse you may offer silent prayer or songs. To pray at the altar of this horse you must humble yourself and in serving this horse, consider it exaltation, for he carries you above cold rivers, sharp stones, and thistled grassland. ...