Huntsinger 1
Tyler Huntsinger
Professor Hofer AML 2010 Essay 1
12 October 2014

“Brute Neighbors”
My neighborhood as a child was one of beauty. Some of my neighbors felt it was much to far from town, from modern living. The busy hustle of cars and people racing back and forth from home to work, from store to store. I liked the distance; it brought me to peace after a long day at school. Drowning in my peers’ voices all day was nowhere near as loud as the screaming peace of the wooded place I called home. A friend of mine would come by regularly so we could explore the neighborhood. We would go through the woods, down over-grown paths, and often end up sitting by pond or canal fishing. Although were together, there was a space between us. We were in our own world, each admiring different things about where we were. There was no place we would rather be.
A kind man who lived next door to me rescued retired racehorses before they were put down. I could often hear them whinnying and braying as they were let out of there stalls in the afternoon. The pure excitement they had as they raced around the pasture was incredible. They circled the fence line a few times before coming to a rest where they would graze. I enjoyed walking down and sitting by the fence just watching, sometimes calling to them so I may pet them. One horse in particular would never run as he was let out but rather slowly walk out to the middle of the pasture where he would stand and look out at whatever happened to be in his direction. For some time I wondered what he was looking at but never seemed to figure it out. As I sat in the grass watching the other horses race and buck in the pasture, I herd the sound of a horse letting out a deep breath next to me. It
Huntsinger 2 appeared that the lone horse and come to see me. Maybe he was curious, just wanted to know why I sat looking into where he stood. And then it hit me, he was never looking at something, but rather where he wanted to be. He wanted to know what I sat looking into where he wanted to get out. The kind man one day came and spoke to be, telling me how great it was that he could rescue these great animals from there death. I asked him why the one horse seemed like it was not happy where it was. He told me quite simply he isn’t. Even though he lives in pleasure, he did not experience the hardships the other horses did and could not appreciate where he lived like they could.
It is amazing the animals that lived so close to me without ever being seen. Deer would come out early in the morning, only long enough for a fleeting glance as they grazed the grass with morning dew. At the slightest noise they would rush off into the woods, ushering their young ones along, alerting them to the danger they believed was there. The morning doves would fly and flirt around, calling to each other while playing a game of chase in and out of the trees. Teasing one another as they fly to the sky then rocketed down just to come roost on the