There is something sad about a fundamentally unloved animal figurine in a thrift store. How they sit piled awkwardly in the corner, their resin slowly chipping away, usually missing an ear, or a leg, or a head. This is not the case here. Someone loved this horse…too much.
I’m thinking the story here is there was a much-loved little statue, treasured since the owner was six, possibly given to her by grandma, maybe even from a time when Grandma was a wee little thing. And then the owner had her offspring, who weren’t as reverential, and suddenly, statue is short a few legs.
Now, in many cases, that would have been the end of the horse. The humane thing to do is to shoot the poor creature, it’s life as a useful (?) piece of brik-a-brack is clearly over. Dust we are, and to dustbin we shall return, and all that. But, no, not this horse. Instead, its remaining legs were lovingly popped off, which no doubt distressed the horse no end, and its stumps were pressed into cleverly-drilled holes, so that it would tread endlessly through knee-high varnished pine for the rest of eternity.
Never let common sense get in the way of a good obsession.
For those of us aging children of the ’80s, get out a hanky with me and re-live one of the best scenes from “Neverending Story“…
Salvation Army on 183 near Anderson Mill, Austin
4 Responses to “Artax! You’ve got to move or you’ll die!”
The first thing I thought of when I saw this was… well, anyone else read the book “Geek Love”?
That scene in NS made me sad as a kid, but when I saw it recently I realized that the kid actor looks like he is trying not to laugh!
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I feel so bad for this horse and the one in Neverending Story. My daughters have the first two movies. We all loved that movie series, but I don’t think I’d buy a sculpture of a horse stuck in the mud. That is just too sad.