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By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON ’
Rappahannock News Stiff Writer The old saying goes that a: horse by any other color is; still a horse. But the old folks who are responsible for alii the old sayings failed to take into account Runcible Spoon. Does an equine who shouts ‘gawk,” “egad,” and “yaargh” when confronted! with hounds qualify? What about an animal that uses mud to disguise the only
white socks on a hunt field [ —hers—in an attempt to1 achieve cosmetic conformity? ' The peaks and valleys of living with this half-real, half-fantastic horse, known as Runcy to her friends, are chronicled in “the Adventures of Runcible Spoon” by her owner, Carolyn Banks of Etlan. This Saturday, December 8, Banks will be at the Country Store in Washington from 1 to 4 p.m. to autograph copies of her delightful little book.
As every horse owner knows, most equines are no great shakes in the brains department. But the emphasis is on “most.” There are a few exceptions and Runcible Spoon sounds like she might be one of those rare Einsteins of the horse world.
The Adventures of Runcible Spoon is a collection of the best of the monthly episodes which appeared in Horse Play, a magazine formerly edited by Banks for people who show, hunt and event. Runcy is the heroine or anti-heroine in each. .
She’s the horse straight out of The Three Faces of Eve with the split personality: “the sludge” that Banks rides alone each day” who manages to convince passersby that she is cruelly put upon”; with a heart rending series of creaks and groans. The same Runcible Spoon is also “the mighty hunter who comes out of the trailer before the tailgate is down, whose nostrils flare, whose flesh quivers. This Runcy is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful then a locomotive,” passing entire hunt fields in a single bound, much to the chagrin of the master. Finally, there is the well mannered Runcy, “the personality that, the, psychiatrist urged Joanne Woodward, that is Eve, to keep.”
But, writes Banks, “even though a reasonable Runcy eventually emerges, the wild and wooly Runcy has spawned a nightmare which plagues me from first frost to spring planting.”
Runcy is one of those animals cursed with “the fear-of-being-clipped instinct”. To protect herself from the horrors of a trim, she’s learned to recognize the sound of the lid coming off the clipper’s box at a distance of 30 yards. As a result, Runcible Spoon goes
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