W&E; Today provides retailers and manufacturers with education and ideas that provoke innovation in the Western and English markets.
Issue link: http://wetoday.epubxp.com/i/267070
6 Western & English Today PUBLISHER'S forum EARLY SPRING 2014 Ride With Me Ride with me, for it is I who draws Apollo's chariot across the sky each day. Ride with me, for I accept that my burden shall be to carry the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on their f nal journey, and although they come in judgment, I simply serve. Ride with me, for I shall carry you through raging rivers and clear, burbling mountain streams. I will charge like a linebacker and pirouette like a ballerina to tend your herds and f ocks. I will carry you safely to the crests of the most treacherous mountains and into the depths of the rockiest valleys to lead you to them in the foulest weather; when the snow is drif ing too deep or the rain pelting too hard, give me my head and I will guide them home, carrying you safely. When you need a friend, I will nuzzle your shoulder and tell you with my sof whicker that I will always be there for you. Ride with me, for I am Bucephalus, who carried Alexander the Great. I am Ulysses S. Grant's Cincinnati; I am the great grey Traveller, who bore Robert E. Lee into battle — serving each with equanimity. Ride with me over the hallowed grounds of Gettysburg, where from my back, you can gaze at once, through the deafening silence, upon nature's pristine splendor and man's darkest hour as the blood of your ancestors, both North and South, f nally melds into the earth in peaceful accord. Ride with me, and together we shall soar into the stratosphere: At that one ephemeral split-second moment clearing a towering jump, I am once again the winged Pegasus, you are weightless on my back, and we both taste boundless bliss. Ride with me, for it is I who created the vaquero and the cowboy; it is I who gave the Comanche his fearsomeness. Bootmakers such as John Justin and Sam Lucchese built empires that began simply so you could ride me. I pull your barges and plow your f elds, asking only clean water and forage in return. I bear the caskets and empty saddles of your fallen leaders, and draw the carriages of your joyous brides and grooms. Ride with me, for I star on the silver screen under my many apellations: T e Pie, Trigger, Silver, Hidalgo and the War Horse, among others. Musicians celebrate me in songs that range from I Ride an Old Paint, Rider in the Rain and Chestnut Mare to Wildf re, Wild Horses and Run for the Roses. Painters, sculptors, jewelers, poets and artisans celebrate my form and my spirit; clothiers from Nudie and Manuel to Hermès and Ralph Lauren pay homage to me. Novelists grace me with names such as Black Beauty, Smoky, Flicka, Misty … and simply "T e Black." T rough my veins courses the blood of the Godolphin Arabian and the Spanish Barb; I am Seabiscuit and Man o' War; I am the incomparable Secretariat. I am Steel Dust and Mr. San Peppy; I am the great Wimpy. And although I may breathe in oxygen and snort out f re, I am gentle and kind: I am your child's backyard pony and the trusted steed between your knees. Ride with me — for I am the Horse, and this is my year. —SLE 0314 PubForum.indd 6 2/19/14 3:56 PM