Horses are fascinating, intelligent creatures.

Nearly every child gets addicted to them at one time or another, and some never grow out of the addiction. Whether the horse-fever comes on while reading, The Black Stallion, or watching old westerns on t.v., horses have an appeal that touches many of us.

For those of us that have been lucky enough to interact regularly with these majestic animals, the appeal is obvious. Horses are intelligent animals with a strong streak of humor, and distinct personalities.

When I was growing up I wanted a horse. I wanted a black horse that would run like the wind, carrying me on his back into the wild adventures that would be my life.

I ended up with Sam. Sam was a Christmas gift in 1971, the Christmas before my twelfth birthday. He was a yearling at that time. He was of excellent blood lines, an own son of a famous quarter horse named Poco Bueno.

He was black. Kind of. Well, actually he was dark chocolate brown. No matter. I was sure that once I got him trained we would ride off into wild adventure. It takes patience and time to train a horse. A yearling really will not be rideable for another three years. Almost twelve year old girls are not very patient.

I worked with him, brushed him, and worked him on the longe as much as I could. I learned to "sack" him by flipping a white, cloth sack around until he was not spooked by it. As I worked with him we seemed to connect, heart to heart and mind to mind. It was then that I noticed he had a sense of humor.

I had never seen a horse with a sense of humor before. I was amazed. At first I thought it was a fluke but then I noticed that he did things on purpose and his eyes would sparkle.

One day my dad was working in the vegetable garden. Sam was in the yard, grazing. Suddenly I saw him look at my dad and get a sparkle in his eye. Slowly, watching my dad, he ambled over by him, grazing the whole time. I wasn't sure what was happening but I put my book down to watch.

Dad always kept a bandanna hanging out of his back pocket to wipe the sweat from his face. Texas summers are hot and dad went through bandannas pretty fast. Suddenly I saw Sam carefully reach toward that bandanna with his lips, grab it, and wheel around, running as fast as he could across the yard to where I was.

As soon as Dad felt the bandana leave his pocket, he headed after Sam yelling. Sam dropped the bandanna and grazed contentedly. I saw Dad pick up the bandanna and mumble something about the stupid horse...

And I saw that Sam was watching Dad out of the corner of his eye. Was that a sparkle?

A few minutes later Sam was moving toward the garden, slowly but definitely. And once again he grabbed that bandanna and ran away with it, his hooves thundering across the hard Texas clay.

And one more time Dad ran after him.

Eventually Dad figured out that Sam was doing it on purpose and started keeping a bandanna in his pocket for play, as well as one in his front pocket for work. We came to realize that Sam was a practical joker and began to get used to the teasing he did of his humans.

Sam was 33 years old when he broke a hip as he got up one morning. My husband was taking his breakfast out to him and as Sam stood up the old bones just snapped. I was devastated. At 44 I had lost a life long friend.

Not that you could replace a friend but within a few months I noticed a mare that looked very much like Sam had. She was for sale.

She was, to my mind, being mistreated and I paid too much for her. It took a year for me to be able to ride her as I wanted to. The smoothness of her gait was incredible to me as she flew over the pasture. And then I discovered, that horse can jump. And once she figured out she could jump, jump she did. Nothing could hold her.

I figured out pretty quickly what worked and what didn't with her. She allowed certain people on her back, others not so much. We added two more horses to our family, Candy and Buddy, so that the kids could ride when they wanted to.

One night our property flooded. We are in a 500 year flood plain, and i guess the ews called this a 500 year flood. It had been raining hard and I woke up to a knocking sound. I looked out and between flashes of lightening I saw Hope and Candy standing belly deep in water, knocking on the metal of the horse tank to get our attention. Buddy waited patiently by the gate, knowing that the girls had it under control.

Marc and I went flying out there and got the horses out to higher ground. Hope and Candy not only saved theirs and Buddy's lives but we were able to get the goats, sheep, and chickens to safety as well. We did not lose one animal to that flood. We did wade through armpit high swirling water at three in the morning, but all the animals were safe.

There are ways to measure the intelligence of an individual horse. Here are some of the criteria:

• Responds to pressure by moving in to it. An intelligent horse will move toward pressure on a body part rather than away from it.
• Appropriate Social Response. If you go up to the front of a horse and blow into their nostrils they should perk their ears forward and look at you intently. This is the horses' way of saying hello. This also shows they are much smarter than dogs, who tend to sniff each-other's behinds.

• If you give a horse some hay where they can see it but can't get to it without moving, like the other side of a fence, a smart horse will move away from the hay and go around the fence. You can also put his oats under a bucket, or that type of thing.
• Curiosity - does the horse respond to an unusual thing by running form it or checking it out? The more curious he is the more intelligent he is.

• Confidence- an intelligent horse will exhibit confidence unless he has been abused.
• Cooperation- does he cooperate with you when you are working with him?
• Acceptance- does he accept you as the head of his herd? Horses are herd animals, they know how to act only as part of a group. A lone horse that gets no attention will get depressed and often eventually just stop eating. As you interact with your horse he should see you as the head of the herd, the boss horse.

Horses are wonderful pets to have, whether you ride them or not.

They need attention just like dogs or cats. The should be groomed, talked to, patted, and loved. Just like any other animal they need fresh water and food at regular times.

Because they can be so long lived a horse is a lifetime of love but also a lifetime of responsibility. Think carefully before you just "get a horse". There is alot that goes along with it.