A Horse With Blue Eyes

Can a horse have blue eyes?  Apparently the answer is “Yes.” I didn’t know this until my cousin Melody shared this very funny story about growing up on the farm. This happened when she was visiting, from Florida, my grandfather’s farm in North Carolina. She remembers my cousins Renee and Bobbi deciding to collect the eggs and taking her along. Of course, I wasn’t there, so I’m taking some license, and may even embellish. . . just a little.  

On the farm, you have to collect eggs at least twice a day, morning and evening, company or not. I can almost hear my grandmother, saying “get” as she motioned the three girls out the door. Melody, Renee, and Bobbi were all about the same age. Little June, Melody’s sister, sitting on the porch, started to follow, causing her sister to turn around and say, “You’re too little. You stay here with the babies.” June turned and ran into the house crying, “Momma!” 

Melody, Renee, and Bobbi walked down the path, through a farm field and over the ditch, until they reached the barn yard. As they walked Melody noticed a white horse with blue eyes following after them on the other side of the fence. “I never saw a horse with blue eyes,” she said to no one in particular. Renee responded, “She’s named Snowball. She thinks she owns the place.” Renee swung the gate open, stopping Snowball in her tracks. It wasn’t much of a chicken coop, more like a shed built off of one side of the barn to store farm equipment. The shed had open doors on both ends making it easy to get the equipment in and out. On the side opposite the barn, roosting boxes were built into the wall. 

As the girls were collecting eggs, Snowball followed them into the coop. Melody was wearing a shirt which had brightly colored flowers. Apparently, the horse thought the flowers were real, because when Melody tried to move past her to the next roosting box, Snowball would not move, but instead tried to bite at the flowers on her shirt. This startled Melody and she jumped back dropping the eggs she was collecting.  When Snowball came toward her, she ran out of the barn. The strangest thing happened next; Snowball followed her. The other girls called after Melody, “Don’t run!” “She won’t hurt you!” 

Melody was out the door and turned the corner to run around the barn. Now, Snowball followed her at a trot. Melody turned to see the horse following her and started screaming, “Help me! Jesus, help me!” The other girls came out of the barn and saw her running with the horse chasing her and they started running after the horse yelling, “Snowball, stop; Snowball, stop!” The horse was not deterred and Melody ran across the barn yard to the hay barn. When she got there she tried to open the door, but couldn’t unlatch it. She turned around to see Snowball and the other girls running after her. Melody started running again, this time around the hay barn.

Melody’s brothers, William and Anthony, who were on their way to the fishing pond, heard the yelling. They dropped their poles and went running down the path toward the barn. When they saw the parade of Melody, Snowball, Renee, and Bobbi all running through the barn yard, they began to laugh. They were laughing so hard that they needed to lean against the fence railing to support themselves. After watching them run a couple of times around the hay barn, William yelled out, “Snowball!” and he whistled loudly. This got the horse’s attention. She broke out of the parade and trotted over to where the boys were standing. When this happened, Melody fell to the ground in a full-out cry. The other girls huddled around her, trying to console her, “She’s really not a mean horse.” “Snowball just thought you were playing.”

When Snowball got to William, he put his hands on each side of the horse’s long face and looked directly into her blue eyes and said, “Snowball, you’ve been a bad horse.” Anthony wiped a tear from his eye and said, “I can’t wait to tell everyone about this one.”  

Melody, how did I do?

You know things are not always what they seem at the time. This experience was obviously terrifying to Melody, but she laughs about it now. She even recently responded on Facebook, “Those were good ‘ol days.” I pray that God will do amazing things in your life. When he does, please share the good news, right here on Chuck & Lizzy. God can change your perspective…maybe, even show you a horse with blue eyes.  

Copyright © 2023 Chuck Locklear