Cowboy At His Friend’s Grave

It is one of the more popular compositions in the American Southwest --  a cowboy and his horse at a grave, presumably of an old friend. The scenery is minimalistic yet it captures a genuine feeling shared by all those who live in the arid lands of the region having their horse and perhaps a dear friend as the daily support and companionship.

And when that friend departs, there is a scar as big as the Arizona’s Grand Canyon the survivors’ souls.

I had a small laser-edged piece of steel depicting that scene. Never figured out what to do with it:

Until, during my trips to the high desert, I found artifacts that brought an idea together.

Indeed, I found the hoof of a horse with the horseshoe still on it. The horse was probably attacked by coyotes, although there have been sightings of Mexican gray wolf in the area where I found the hoof.  Near the hoof was a horseshoe that had come off another hoof I presume. And during a recent trip, I found the petrified sacral bones possibly of a coyote.

When I looked at the three together I could only think of the cowboy praying at a grave:

… After looking at it from a few angles, the wood, steel, keratin and bone composition made me wonder --given how close is the relationship between a cowboy and horse, is it possible that the grave is that of his last horse?

Do not know the answer, but I decided to interpret my composition as such.

July 27, 2019

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019