In the winter my dad’s friends at school went out on weekends to a ranch not far from the city They had discovered they could exercise the animals for free Dad continued to beg for months to go but Grandpa didn’t take his interest very seriously In the old country horses pulled carts and plows Fed up with all his begging and pleading My grandfather finally relented One bright crisp early winter day found them in their latest model Ford on the road that lead to the outskirts of the city It was my dad’s birthday Grandpa was in good spirits encouraging his son to tell him all about the ranch and the horses They were almost there Dad was terribly excited eager to show off the stables There were two horses to choose from that freezing morning Did Grandpa want to ride Oh no, he would watch his son There was a horse Dad had set his eyes on Grandpa had suggested the mare Who was smaller and more sedate But Dad chose the bigger horse It was snorting and tossing its head You could see its great dragon breath on the air the rippling across its skin. The groom saddled up the gelding With the gallery glued to his every move Dad mounted it with a leg up from his father and grabbed the reins ready to go The horse was snorting and pawing the ground Going nowhere standing like stone Grandpa went up to the horse ignoring Dad’s warning He was making an odd sound between his teeth The horse lifted his proud head turned and looked at Grandpa Grandpa made the sound again And the horse walked steadily around the paddock picking up steam Every so often it would rise up on its hind legs snort and whinny probably just happy to be out of its stall Dad’s hat had blown off and his longish hair he always hated getting a haircut blew across his reddened cheeks. He looked excited and a little anxious (not scared to death as Grampa later told it) They rode around the paddock several times The next time the horse reared up Dad almost fell off backwards but managed to get back in the saddle and keep going. Grandpa took a moment off from blowing on his chilled fingers to whistle to the horse who came trotting proudly back to the gate Maybe that’s enough he said I’m doing fine Dad replied What do you know about horses anyway or something sassy like that. Get down off that thing and I’ll show you Dad grinning replied quietly You think you can ride him What happened next is hard to describe although I made my Dad tell it over and over again then and for years to come No sooner had Grandpa landed in the saddle he was on the ground again and then back in the saddle with ease leaping onto the horse and then to the ground over and over again Finally remaining on the ground Dad thought the show was over when Grandpa climbed up and sat on the fence next to him The horse continued circling the paddock Then Grandpa whistled and the horse ran by close enough so that Grampa could mount him on the run He repeated his former trick of jumping on and off the horse one time even landing backwards on his rump and holding on to his tail. Dad closed his gaping jaw long enough to laugh until his sides hurt The horse seemed to know the program and the joke When Grandpa walked away as if the fun was over he butted Grampa in the rear Grampa grabbed his tail and within seconds was in the saddle There seemed no end of tricks this Russian Jew from the shtetl and this American quarter horse could do Grandpa laughed and chuckled to himself all the way home While Dad nonplussed and more than a bit annoyed bit down on his teeth, crossed his arms across his chest and said nothing. Dad stayed angry for quite a while If Grampa had this secret what else about his past had he hidden from his children Finally he had to ask And the long time buried story emerged bit by bit His dad and his brothers (the lost uncles) regularly traveled by horseback across the mountains and acquired wild Arabian horses breaking them on the trip home after some further training they sold them to the Cossacks But what about all the tricks While they were training the horses who caught on very quickly they would get into contests doing more and more difficult riding tricks. Sometimes they would gather a crowd and make a little side money Then he got into a fight with a Cossack who refused to pay for the horses. He said if Grampa beat him in a fair fight that he would pay. The family desperately needed the money. Grampa was strong and a good fighter when it looked like he was winning the Cossack pulled a knife Grampa kicked it out of his hand and knocked him unconscious Then Grandpa took the horses and sold them on his way out of the country He swam the Volga river (as the story goes) It took a year to get on a boat and come to America. Montclair, NJ, 2018 Provincetown, MA, 2025
Hiding Out