In my opinion, the horse has to be one of the toughest animals out there, yet its life is probably one of the hardest.
My mom once told me the day you see a horse lying down is the day it dies. It was the saddest fact about a horse I’ve ever heard and it also made me feel sad for the horse. “You mean to tell me,” I said, “that the horse is on its feet all its life?”
I didn’t believe that fact until I listened to Black Beauty. I cried nearly the whole way through as I listened to a horse narrate its hard life – working from a young age until it’s old and going through so much hardship. Though this horse is living a good life (I hope) in beautiful Capitol Reef National Park, the fact that it must stand for the duration of its life made me feel sad for the poor creature.
Bisons, on the other hand, though I feel the life of a bison and a horse may be similar in some ways, at least a bison can rest its legs when it gets tired.
This was in Yellowstone, by the way. We were heading down the road when suddenly, cars started stopping and people started getting out. Being small and in the backseat, I had to crane my neck to see what people were looking at. “Over there!” My mom’s friend pointed at the field on my right. There they were, dozens perhaps hundreds of bisons on the grassy field, enjoying the sunshine. Some were sleeping, some were feeding the young, while this particular bison appears to be on th lookout for something or someone.
Hmm…
Lastly, how can I forget deer – another animal with hooves. I think this is a young deer, wandering up and down the shrine dedicated to the deer in Nara, Japan. I remember there was a lot of deer in that part of Nara. Almost every YouTube video I’ve seen of Nara talked about the deer population in Nara. As we walked through the park, my mom asked if I wanted to feed the deer, I flat out refused because I’m absolutely terrified of animals – wild or domestic.
I do, however, enjoy taking pictures of them. Some of these deer are quite photogenic as long as I stand at a safe distance with my long lens.
For SundayStills
This is Another Story 