We Started Directly After Stable Call, Which
Is At Six O'clock.
Lieutenant Golden rode Dandy, his beautiful
thoroughbred, that reminds me so much of Lieutenant Baldwin's Tom, and
I rode a troop horse that had never been ridden by a woman before.
As
soon as he was led up I noticed that there was much white to be seen
in his eyes, and that he was restless and ever pawing the ground. But
the orderly said he was not vicious, and he was sure I could ride him.
He did not object in the least to my skirt, and we started off in fine
style, but before we reached the end of the line he gave two or three
pulls at the bit, and then bolted! My arms are remarkably strong, but
they were like a child's against that hard mouth. He turned the corner
sharply and carried me along back of the laundress' quarters, where
there was a perfect network of clothes lines, and where I fully
expected to be swept from the saddle. But I managed to avoid them by
putting my head down close to the horse's neck, Indian fashion. He was
not a very large horse, and lowered himself, of course, by his
terrific pace. He went like the wind, on and up the hill in front of
the guard house. There a sentry was walking post, and on his big
infantry rifle was a long bayonet, and the poor man, in his desire to
do something for me, ran forward and held the gun horizontally right
in front of my horse, which caused him to give a fearful lunge to the
right and down the hill.
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