My father decided we needed a horse to ride to our one-room schoolhouse. So he went to an auction and bought an old (I mean “old”) gray mare, she was swaybacked and all. My sister and I had never ridden much at all, especially double and bareback. So off we went, thinking how great.
All was fine until time to go home the first afternoon. There were 2 older neighbor boys that rode a small Shetland pony. They thought they would really have some fun with us on our big old gray mare. They came up running behind us and yelled like “Ride , em Cowboy!” or something. That spooked our mare who started running, too! In not too great a distance my sister slid to one side and pulled me off and we both fell on the hard ground. We didn’t ride the rest of the way home.
Theresa Bainbridge
La Salle, Colorado
(Editor’s Note: “Molly” soon passed away, and the girls walked the rest of that year.)
Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then Capper’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from Capper’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.