Bold Sphere

In 1988 I had started a job working for a horse veterinarian outside of San Antonio. Bold Sphere was a big quarter horse stallion with a mean streak. There was a leather strap on a handle that was kept on his stall door so that anyone having to interact with him could possibly prevent serious bodily injury, but that did very little to deter him. He was constantly trying to nip and bite at you, so I often had little bruises all over my arms and shoulders.

There were 2 stallions on the place, and each one got half a day in the front paddock. One afternoon, as I was leading Bold Sphere out to the paddock, he tossed his head and clocked me a solid blow to the right side of my face and gave me a pretty awful black eye. I just laughed about it, mostly, and didn’t think much of it. It was just part of working with horses sometimes.

That was the summer that Sea World San Antonio opened, and I was super excited to go. I had a friend named Michael who also wanted to go, so we teamed up to make a day of it! My usual daily wear was boots, jeans, and T-shirts or maybe a long sleeve button up for sun protection, but I had just bought a cute sundress and by golly, I was going to wear it, black eye and bruises and all! 

We were standing next to one of the big open pools, I think either seals or dolphins, and Michael went over to get us something from the nearby drink stand. As I am enjoying watching the animals, a woman quietly steps up next to me and in a low volume said to me, “Honey, you don’t have to take it.”

I swear to you I did not think about my response as I said, “But he’s such a stud!”

She was horrified and left so quickly I didn’t get a chance to explain.