When our youngest daughter was about 10, we bought her a horse.

A real old cowboy lived about four blocks from us, and I got acquainted with him. His name was Homer.

He lived in a small house on the edge of Bothell and had a two- to three-acre pasture that on occasion was home to a horse or two.

While visiting with him one day, he suggested that I ought to buy Kim a horse. He said he would rent...