Grandpa's Horse

by Seaux-N-Seau Soileau

Title

Grandpa's Horse

Artist

Seaux-N-Seau Soileau

Medium

Painting - Acrylic

Description

Mama never knew her grandpa because he died before she was born. Her mother told her lots of stories about him. The story of her Grandpa's Horse was Mama's favorite and she often told me about it. Her grandpa had trained a horse to bow and dance. His parish priest in Church Point, Louisiana was very impressed with the horse's talent.
A new Catholic Church was being built in Opelousas and was going to be dedicated to St. Landry. The Archbishop of New Orleans would be coming to dedicate and bless the new church.
The priest asked her grandpa if he would like to get the horse to greet the bishop at the train station and lead the procession to the new church. Her grandpa was happy to do this.
Mama told me her mother who was 16 at the time went to this special event.
The horse was bathe and brushed and loaded on a train in Church Point to travel to Opelousas. The horse, trainer, and my grandmother arrived in Opelousas a couple hours before the archbishop was to arrive. The horse was brushed again and was shown the route to the new church. The route to the church and the yard of the new church was filled with people .
When the bishop arrived the horse bowed as the archbishop exited the train. This painting tells of that greeting. This story is still told in my family over a hundred years later even though my great-grandpa, my grandmother, and Mama have all died. Our family had no photographs of the event. Mama told me she never asked her mom what kind of horse her grandpa had but she guessed it would be an Apollosa as that was the most popular horse here in Acadiana.
Featured in the following Fine Art America group:
Catholic Art Gallery 12/02/2020

Uploaded

March 14th, 2020

Statistics

Viewed 590 Times  -  Last Visitor from Ottawa, ON - Canada on 04/19/2024 at 3:47 PM

Colors

Embed

Share

Sales Sheet

Tags