Between Eider Down and a Stone: The Long Rider’s Grain Pillow

I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.

A grain pillow, I’ve learned, makes a pleasant head rest provided the ground is hard and the night cold.

I discovered this by accident just trying to keep Woody fed these last winter days before the Bermuda and fescue blades unfurl from their hibernation.

Out of sheer necessity I’d filled both my two-gallon ZipLock bags with Woody’s feed; the third I stuffed with Quaker Old-Fashioned Oats.

I stuffed the three bags into a pommel bag which is the peanut shaped bag that I tie in front of my McClellan saddle. Evenings, Woody eyes me cheerily every time I approach the bag as though his spontaneous good will wouldn’t raise my suspicions. After I capitulate I spread the horse blankets around the tent. Those are my blankets. The tuber-shaped pommel bag goes at the head; that’s my pillow.

As pillows go it’s between eider down and the proverbial stone but still comforts a sleepy head.

Nights I sleep on my side on the ground. The oat and corn grains shift under my ear like dunes settling. As the nights go by Woody consumes the grain and my head sinks lower until it rests on empty canvas. Then it’s time to re-stuff my pillow.

So far, I’ve never suffered a sleepless night. Or a hungry mule.

Though I have suffered fire ants that seem to be attracted to the grain pillow.

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