Revisiting Ben's Last Ride

Matt and Kerry Wickman and their daughters, Hadley and Elena, have enjoyed coming out to the Snyder place for barbeques and horse riding. The girls are especially fond of horses, especially Ben. One Friday afternoon a few falls ago, Matt brought Hadley and Elena over for a ride. It turned out to be Ben's last ride.

I noticed that he wasn't breathing well and took a long time coming in from the pasture when I called him. After the girls rode, I called my friend Jon Hunter, who's our vet, and he came over early the next morning. He examined Ben and told me Ben had pneumonia. Jon gave him an injection, and Ben seemed to perk up a bit that Saturday, but when I checked him before I left for bishopric meeting Sunday morning, I found him lying dead in his stall. He was 27 years old.

There's a Western tradition that everyone gets a horse of a lifetime--one that's better than all of the others. I was fortunate enough to have my very first horse be that horse of a lifetime. If there ever was a horse who filled the measure of his creation, that horse is Ben. It wasn't until I owned and rode other horses that I fully realized how truly remarkable Ben was--and how well he always took care of me. He always made me look to be a better horseman than I was. I still don't understand everything Ben taught me. As J. Frank Dobie once observed in The Mustangs ". . . a man who has had a good horse in his life . . . will remember him as a certitude, like a calm mother, a lovely lake, or a gracious tree, amid all the flickering vanishments."

It was sweet and fitting that Ben's last ride was with children. He gave many children their very first horse ride. I'll always remember Elena (who's pictured in the saddle) cradling Ben's drooping head in her arms as she told him goodbye that evening. They both seemed to sense what kind of parting it would be.