The Turquoise Horse

I began writing the stories in The Turquoise Horse in 1974 in Tesuque, New Mexico.

The idea didn't come from my imagination.  It came from my friend Jay DeGroat.  In 1965 Jay told me about a mysterious pinto horse that he had spent months tracking and trying to get a rope around. but the horse always got away.  And then he told me about the five horses of the sun.  One for each color of the day and the night.  The turquoise horse was a midday horse, blue as the sky at that time of day.  The dark horse was a nighthorse and stars shone in his mane.

The story goes -- 

I sit upon a turquoise horse
at the opening of the sky . . .
My horse walks on terrifying hooves
and stands on the upper circle of the rainbow
with a sunbeam in his mouth for a bridle.
My horse circles all the people of the earth.
Today I ride on his broad back and he is mine,
tomorrow he will belong to another.