Whenever I travel I like to pick up the local paper just to get a favor of the community. While driving down US395, on the eastern slope of the Sierra mountains of California, I had the opportunity to pick up a copy of the “The Sheet: News, Views & Culture of the Eastern Sierra.” The weekly is published in the resort community of Mammoth Lakes, California.
The cover story “Mountain-Biscuit: A Local Horse Defies the Odds” caught my attention. Now, I’m not a horse person but I like a good story and Mike McKenna did an excellent job telling the story of Delaney.
Delaney, a native of Montana, had ended up in Southern California. Delaney was approaching the end of his life. While working the rangeland around Elko, Nevada, he had developed pneumonia. He had been shipped to Southern California to recover. Instead of getting better, he continued to decline and was put out to pasture to fatten up before being shipped off to the glue factory.
A San Juan Capistrano couple found Delaney and recognized that there was still a sparkle in his eyes. They finally resorted to a horse psychic to find out what was going on with Delaney. So, what did the horse tell the psychic? It was simple. He wanted to return to the mountains.
That was two decades ago and Delaney is still living in the mountains surrounds Mammoth Lakes. This past 4th of July he participated in another parade, as he has done for nearly twenty years.
Dreams do come true, even for a sick horse who wanted to return to the mountains. Being a mountain person I can understand.
How many times have you read such a story then promptly tossed the paper away? Mike’s email address was listed on page 2 of the paper. I took a few minutes and send him an email, thanking him or a great story. A week or so later I got a short thank you email. He thanked me for spreading the story of Delaney. My pleasure Mike.
