B

As I watch a single horse running across the field, I think back to when I saw my first horse. She was standing in a field. "Hold out your hand. Gentle now," my grandfather said. Nervously, I did. Stepping toward me, she turned her head to inspect me with one coffee-colored eye. At that moment, I could have known she smiled. This was my first childhood memory, in which I realized that I would soon learn to ride her, and in my heart I felt like a true Comanche.

For days after our first meeting, I sat in the field with my horse. I studied her as she studied me. I learned which grasses she preferred to eat; she would lift her head into the gentle spring wind that often blew across the field.

Finally, the time came to ride her. It was a tribal (部落的) tradition for younger men to spend most of their days hunting. This left the teaching to the elders, like my grandfather. These lessons were extremely important. Every boy was put on a horse before he could walk and was expected to be a skilled rider by age five. When the elders felt a boy was an expert, he was able to have his own horse.

On riding day, I told my horse that we both had much to prove today, and I remembered nuzzling her and kissing her long face. When she nuzzled me back, I knew she understood. I felt the days spent in the field with her had given me a strange belief in her--in us. I encouraged her to move, and with her head held high, she carried me. She was as proud of me as I was of her.

We succeeded. The elders of the tribe announced me a skilled horseman. I stood in a circle of men from my tribe. I could feel my heart beating quickly. Then the moment came when my father presented me with my first bow and arrow. I had never before seen so much pride in his eyes.

Today my father leads the horse and his grandson--my son--climb upon his own horse in golden sunlight. My father insisted on teaching him to ride and doing it in the way of our people. Proudly, I stepped aside to let him do so. I smile, cherishing the details of this moment as much as I have always cherished the memories of my own riding day.