I own horses. Never won a derby or anything, but I sell them and breed them and they're just beautiful animals. I never had horses growing up, but you see them on television, you see them in the movies, and you say to yourself when I can, when I am able, I'm just gonna buy a fleet of those things. One for every day of the week. For better or worse, I passed that point quite some time ago. I've spent too much on them. My wife tells me to stop, but what else is the money for?

This one time I ended up with a pretty young bay, and it turned out she'd lost an eye. I can't remember when or how it happened, but one of the boys I had looking after them—he wasn't Mexican. Panamanian? I can't remember. But he told me about it and I went out to see it and I asked if the horse could be saved and he told me it could. Told me a one-eyed horse just needs to be treated a little differently, and I said of course but how? He said you have to understand that one side of her world is missing. He said that you could wave your hand out there and your hand would be there for you, but for the horse it just wasn't. Said things happen all the time that you and I know about that the horse will never understand. That our world was bigger than theirs was anyway. And here's just one more thing.

He got up on the animal and he showed me. Turned it around and walked up in a circle about the yard and the horse didn't look a bit different to me. The boy said that what you do is you tell her not to be afraid. She knows that you know more than she does, and if she trusts you enough then she trusts you to tell her what she doesn't know. Trusts you to do what's best.

If she trusts you, my man said, she'll do just fine. You lead her with your legs. You swing the fences into her sight and she'll still jump them like she used to. You let her see what she needs to see, and you let her lean up into the rest of all that dark. That's what he told me. Said you sidle her up against it so she can feel it, and you let her feel it. It's that dark that'll keep her steady. All the things she could see before out of that good eye are just one thing now. And that thing is what she feels for you. A one-eyed horse, he said, will love you like no other. And I found it all very instructive.

I cannot to this day remember how that horse got that eye of hers put out, but ever since then I have always felt it important to have one on the farm. The boys don't like doing that to an animal, but I have to remind them that it ain't their horse in the first place. It's mine to do with what I think is best. That's how this sort of thing is conferred. And I'll tell them too, when the moment arises, that if you work hard enough, one day you can buy yourself a horse of your own. And whatever comes after that, is completely up to you.

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