Fun Sunday Afternoons
The time was a few years after WWII had ended in Germany. The facilities that housed my own horse were gone along with the horses, the whole cavalry regiment stationed there, in fact my entire City of Darmstadt was destroyed during an Allied raid on 9-11-44. Not much other than housing was being rebuild right now. I knew of a great place in New Isenburg, a suburb of the City of Frankfurt. The streetcar would be running to the outskirts of New Isenburg and from there the Frankfurt street car would bring me and my friend Hedy to the facility that had quite a number of stalls with horses for rent by the hour. I planned on going riding next Sunday and see how it would feel being on a horse again since l944.
Between New Isenburg and Frankfurt is a beautiful, well-groomed forest with great riding trails. I had asked my friend Hedy if she would want to accompany me and go for a ride. We both arrived at the stables and after being asked some questions the gentleman walked us to the stables. He left and came back with the groom who again asked us some questions one of them if either one of us had ever ridden before. We both had. The groom brought from the meadows below two horses. A beautiful chestnut brown one with alert and wonderful eyes and a silver gray one with a mischievous look in his eyes. The groom took them to the stable to saddle them, handed me the reins to the chestnut horse and gave Hedy the reins to the silver-gray horse. Then he stood there watching us.
I mounted the horse and heard Hedy say:
I love it! Hedy was obviously a good match for Ilona’s fun and mischief. Everyone needs a good friend like her. And the ending is perfect.