dancing little red tassels

Not once have I ever noted that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about "dancing little red tassels" on the bridles of Almanzo's horses in Little Town on the Prairie (see Chapter 13, "School Days"). Of course I'll be heading to the tack store tomorrow to buy some red tassels, and no, I don't have a horse.

Horse-hair tassels were not only decorative. They were sometimes added to ward off evil spirits. Their swinging also served to keep flies and other insects from lighting.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:59 AM