June 29, 2019 — A lot has changed in the time since the July 4th 1776 presentation of the Declaration of Independence — the document that started this home of many of us, and the reason for the July 4th holiday, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the the horse fly. A bite from a horse fly is a nasty thing. The horse fly has a scissor mouth, uses that mouth to slash the horse’s skin, then can lap up between 40 and 200 mgs of blood. As my mother would say, isn’t that just gross? Gross being my mother’s favorite word when something was anything from yucky to politically unfavorable And those flies don’t just get horses. Yep, even more gross.

Searching for a way to make this story about both July 4th and horses, I offer you a glimpse back in time to July 4th, 1776. That room where Jefferson gathered the people of our history books was particularly gross, perhaps not politically, although it would have been had we not won, but definitely in the condition of the air, shall we say. I’ll defer to the words of the 1874 book Life of Jefferson to explain:

“During the 2nd, 3d and 4th of July, Congress were engaged in reviewing the Declaration. Thursday, the fourth, was a hot day; the session lasted many hours; members were tired and impatient. Mr. Jefferson used to relate, with much merriment, that the final signing of the Declaration of Independence was hastened by an absurdly trivial cause.

Near the hall in which the debates were then held was a livery-stable, from which swarms of flies came into the open windows, and assailed the silk-stockinged legs of the honorable members. Handkerchief in hand, they lashed the flies with such vigor as they could command on a July afternoon, but the annoyance became at length so extreme as to render them impatient of delay, and they made haste to bring the momentous business to a conclusion.”

So there you have it. The proximity of the horses, and hence the proximity of the horse flies near those horses, resulted in… well, America. Sure there was the entire revolutionary war thing that we happened to win, thankfully, but I’m thinking credit to the horses is overdue. Oh and yes, I really did make this story about horses! I mean I had to.

Happy 4th to you all, horses and horse flies included. My music selection is the background music of my featured video. Now that’s riding, if I ever saw it! R O C K in the U S A, all!