Bonnie and Flame

My sister had a horse she loved called Flame. Flame was more than a horse, she was like a companion, steady, loyal, safe, good natured. Bonnie rode her all the time. Flame liked to stop and smell the roses. Bonnie belonged to a horse club and one of the big events of the year for the club was that the kids rode their horses to music performing a horse square dancing number at the annual county fair and rodeo on Labor Day weekend as well as at the junior rodeo in Baker.

For the performance, the members dressed in Western outfits and brushed and groomed their horses to the nines. They rehearsed with their horses throughout the year to music in anticipation for the big rodeo events.

The horse club was run by a man named Vee. Vee’s daughter, Dodi, was in the club too and she had a beautiful prancing horse that moved quickly and learned all of the steps to the dance. At one of the practices before Labor Day weekend, Dodi told Bonnie that Flame wasn’t good enough to be in the show, that she wasn’t fast and slowed everybody else down. It was kind of true, Flame didn’t like dancing and she had put her feet down about it more than once. Bonnie rode home bawling and hated Dodi after that. Bonnie tried to make Flame move faster, she even had a little whip to use. Flame disliked the notion of dancing to music but she did it, kind of begrudgingly, so Bonnie encouraged her to move with the little whip. Vee had extra horses so he called our dad one night to offer Bonnie a faster horse to ride for the big performance, one that could dance and turn quickly.

One night daddy had a talk with Bonnie and told her that it was her choice, she could ride Flame for the big event, borrow the faster horse, or quit the club, it was up to her. Bonnie was so mad at Vee and Dodi that she wanted to just quit. Daddy told her that she could make the decision of what to do. Daddy dropped a few choice words about Vee in the discussion too. Daddy was a great friend of profanity. Bonnie ended up riding Flame at the big performance and then she quit the club after the rodeo weekend. She knew she would never feel the same about the club again. Bonnie took a stand for Flame.