You can’t really say you know Marie Mattson until you’ve met her better half. Of course, that’s me, Latte. I am Marie’s eighteen-year-old Mustang, and I feel I am one of the stable influences in her life.
Nothing makes me happier than when Marie unloads me from the trailer and we saddle up and start looking for some lost hiker or missing child. Working with the Northwest Horseback Search and Rescue division of the sheriff’s department in both King and Snohomish Counties, we make a big commitment to public safety. I tell you, I am just chomping at the bit to get out in the woods with Marie again and hit those trails! I get so excited that it’s hard to rein it in. But I would never want to stirrup any trouble, so I just hoof it to where Marie tells me to go.
Now there are neigh-sayers out there whose mane complaint is that horses can’t purr like cats or come into the house like dogs can. Those folks don’t feel that horses are truly pets. I wish I had a couple of bucks for every person I have heard say things like that. But my equine buddies aren’t jockeying for a better position in your heart. My filly Marie is glad to be with me come reins or shine, and that’s all I care about.
So if you have a chance on the spur of the moment to come out and visit after you’ve signed the papers and transferred the keys with Marie, I’d be happy to show you around the pasture (watch your step, though!). Marie and I make a great search team. You herd that right from the horse’s mouth!
