Not Too Old To Fall Poem by gershon hepner

Not too old to ride, I trot,
not too old to fall in pastures
that once were green but now are not
as green as I remember last year’s.

Adam Bernstein writes in the LA Times, June 3,2008, an obituary of Louise Firouz, an American expatriate whoho died of liver failure on May 25,2008, having manged to save the Caspian horse from extinction:

Despite hardships, she said she was content in Iran. The Bloomberg news service quoted her saying: 'I love the freedom of not having fences. U.S. and Europe are too conformist, too confining.' For the last several years, she managed to keep one Caspian and 50 Akhal-Teke racehorses. She funded her stud farm by taking Western tourists on 10-day riding treks into the mountains near her home. In December, she told an interviewer from Reuters news agency that she had defied a doctor's orders not to ride because of her age.
'I'm not too old to ride, ' she said. 'I'm too old to fall off.' Survivors include three children, a brother, a half sister and six grandchildren.

6/3/08