New steed replaces Silver I who died this year
By Larry Perl (The Baltimore Messenger, 11/30/2012)
When The Lone Ranger returns to the Mayor’s Annual Christmas Parade in Hampden Sunday for his fourth year, Silver, his original, white horse, “best friend and partner,” won’t be with him.
The Lone Ranger, aka Garry Cherricks, of Salisbury, Md., said he is mourning the death of Silver, 23, who was grazing in a neighbor’s yard on the evening of May 19 when he took 10 sudden steps to a stretch of blacktop for no apparent reason, slipped and fell.
“He tried to get up and he tried to get up,” said Cherricks, who sat with Silver until 5:30 a.m., when a veterinarian put the horse down.
Silver died with his head on Cherricks’ lap. He was a ripe old age for a horse, and had arthritis in his knees, Cherricks said.
“It was awful,” said Cherricks, a retired insurance broker and an impersonator of the Lone Ranger at parades and shows around the country since 2005.
But life must go on, and so must the show, which is why he plans to ride in the Hampden parade Sunday, Dec. 2, with a new horse, Silver II, an 11-year-old gelding that Cherricks found near Nashville, Tenn., in August.
Continue reading “Lone Ranger soldiers on in Hampden parade, but without longtime horse” at The Baltimore Messenger.
