Horse Power (part one)

Our family owned a small farm near Stillwater, Minnesota. I think we moved there when I was about eleven years old. Our dad got us all kinds of animals, and I don't mean dogs and cats, although we had those, too. We had a menagerie of bovines and they all had names. There were two Holstein steers named Pinky and Vasser; a Charlais steer named Charlie (very original); Kim's sweet Black Angus heifer named Kelly; and finally, my darling Jersey heifer named Bambi. But, the topic of this post is about horses!
Dad also bought us two horses. The first one was a beautiful Bay mare named Cimarron, who was very high-spirited. She was majestic and a little hot-headed. My brother Dan was the one in the family who rode her the most, but I'd take her out a lot and so did Kim. I think Wendy was a little to young to handle such a big beast!
Then, there was Dusty. Dust was a dappled grey old mare that seemed to be more of cross between a larger pony and a full-sized horse. She was quite a character. In the winter, Dusty grew this long hair on her belly that made her look like a Mastadon. We did not have a saddle for Dusty, but of course there was one for the rider of Cimarron. Riding bareback on Dusty was not a problem at all. She was...how to say...a full-figured mare and that translated to a pretty comfortable ride. We always used a bit bridle, and as I remember, Dusty had a pretty strong mouth. Dad bought her from Burt Rivard, a local horse trader with a less than stellar background-to put it mildly. We found out later that St. Paul City-Councilmember Rosalie Butler (this was in the 60's) had been the previous owner of Dusty.
There are hundreds of stories to enjoy about our growing up on the farms of my Gramma and Grampa, Uncle Marvin and our place. I can remember pretty clearly those first weeks on our place-the Carlson family was our closest neighbor and I think both families were happy to see there were kids to meet, play with, and eventually become lifelong friends. The five Carlson kids (in order) Steve, Joel, Lisa, Paul, and Linnea and the four of us spent many hours together. Back to the horse deal, though.
Our other neighbors, and friends from when we lived in North St. Paul, the Mendlik's, had horses, as well. The Keller's, more neighbors with kids also had horses. I suppose instead of Stingray bikes, we country kids just had horses. All the neighbor horses had cool names as I mentioned earlier.
The Carlson's did not have horse, as I remember...wait, they did have a horse named Blackie, but I think Joel rode him all the time. They did have a working dairy farm with Brown Swiss cattle. Because they did not have horses, this put the Carlson kids at somewhat of a disadvantage when the boys in the families went on camping journeys or ride horses to have races. The Keller boys, my brother Dan, and the Mendlik boys all got together on a regular basis, and of course their mode of transportation was horse power. Steve Carlson had two options, either forego the events or ride our horse, Dusty. What Dusty lacked in size and speed, she made up for in personality. (to be continued)