Seajay
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2011
- Posts
- 448
A REAL COWBOY, KIND OF.......
I was starting to get use to horses and cows and the rough life of a cowboy now. Earlier I had bought me a pair of ''working gloves'' down to Sherman s Store. You know the kind made from soft leather, yellow, with the pull cord on the back to tighten the cuff. I could tell by them that time had passed and they started to fit me like second skin on my hands. The palms were now a dirty brown from the ranees of the horses and the handling of saddles and blankets. I could saddle my own horse but I was still very confused over ''horse color''. Lets see, a strawberry roan, or a bay or a applause I still had trouble determining which one was what color and they laugh at you when you simply say ''I wanna' ride the brown one today''.............
My fanny was getting tough now and seldom got sore and my jeans were getting that saddle shine on the back side. I was now pretty comfortable on a horse. I had learned that, by and large, the horse knew ''cattle'' a lot better than I did. The horses seemed to understand the temperament of cows and what they were thinking. It seemed that the horse knew what the cows were going to ''do'' before the cow done it. When we pushed cattle I noticed the horse watched them intently, kinda like a dog watching sheep. We would plod along, going slow and letting the cows make their own pace because the Association did not want you to ''run the cows'' lest it cost them weight and money so we generally let them make their own pace. The horses would follow on behind or on the wings of the herd. Sometimes cows don?t want to move off the good grass to another location and they will cut back after they have gone some distance. The horses watch for this and with little or no attention from the rider (me) the horse will spin on a dime to block the cows path. I hate to admit it but I was left ''sitting on air'' a couple of times when my horse kinda spun out from under me. I would be riding along, happy as a clam, looking for elk or deer on the mountain and the horse would be watching the cows. I would be day dreaming and my horse would simply ''slide from under my fanny'' and the ground would catch me. On those occasions the horse would stop and look around at me with the question in his eyes.....''What the hay are you doing down there fella''. Booger Red and Gypsy were two that did this but we all got a good laugh out of it at supper. Art suggested that maybe he should put a ''seat belt'' on my saddle to help hold me on the horse.
My new hat was finally ''wearing in'' also. It had settled in to the shape of my head and it was tight but very comfortable. There was a sweat stain around the band and the brim was dirty from my hands. One side of the brim was tilted up a little more than the other where I would grab the hat to take it off. It had a few dings in the crown from being dropped when I would hang it up for the night. My ''New Hat'' was losing the ''New'' and becoming a work hat like so many out there wear.
One thing that amazed me is that both the cattle and the horses seemed to know where we were going with little prompting. I could only believe that they ''knew the way'' so to speak, from one pasture to the next and the direction of travel associated with the time of the seasons as to where they were suppose to go. I have seen demonstrations where quarter horses can herd cattle like a sheep dog herds sheep. The rides simply sits in the saddle with his arms folded and the raines of the horse around the saddle horn and the horse does all the thinking and all the work without any seen ''prompting'' from the rider. Amazing ?..
The horses we rode were called ''Quarter Horses'' and to the ''smart aces'' reading this that does not mean they ''cost a quarter'' or ''three quarters of the horse is missing''. Quarter horses are a special breed that have the great ability to seemingly ''think'' and they have a natural herding instinct. They can go from a slow walk to wide open in a couple of steps and literally turn in half their body length and like I said earlier, ''They can leave you sitting on air if you are not paying attention''. (been there and done that) (at least twice, probably more but who is bragging)
I was becoming one with the horse also. I trusted him to take me across a shallow stream with swift water and a bottom made of slick rocks. I trusted him to take me up mountains that I would have had difficulty climbing on foot and then down the other side with his rear legs folded under his body and steering with his front legs as we descended mountain sides too steep for me to walk down. He would simply squat down and over the side we would go. I noticed that I seldom screamed on the way down now and I could keep my eyes open some of the time. I would still got a lump in my throat when I would look over his head and down a mountain strewn with large rocks, logs, fallen trees and other debris with a nice ice cold stream at the bottom in case you did not get stopped. Yes Mother nature had strewn these things around to make the ''downhill'' ride more fun.. (yeah sure)...........
I knew that I would miss this place with its horses and a man that I truly liked as a friend and a mentor. I would miss him for his wisdom and his laugh, his ability to make fun of you without hurting your feelings and to let himself be the ''butt end of a joke'' on occasion. I would miss that ''knowing smile'' like a Cheshire cat that had just eaten the canary and his patience with a guy from ''Back East'' and a greenhorn under his care. I think of him often now and sometimes when I see a pretty sunset I can still see his face in the clouds it seems ?.
Such is life and the memories of an old man remembering when he spent two weeks in Heaven at Taylor Park in the Colorado Rockies ?..
more later........ we move to Union Cow Camp tomorrow..........
I was starting to get use to horses and cows and the rough life of a cowboy now. Earlier I had bought me a pair of ''working gloves'' down to Sherman s Store. You know the kind made from soft leather, yellow, with the pull cord on the back to tighten the cuff. I could tell by them that time had passed and they started to fit me like second skin on my hands. The palms were now a dirty brown from the ranees of the horses and the handling of saddles and blankets. I could saddle my own horse but I was still very confused over ''horse color''. Lets see, a strawberry roan, or a bay or a applause I still had trouble determining which one was what color and they laugh at you when you simply say ''I wanna' ride the brown one today''.............
My fanny was getting tough now and seldom got sore and my jeans were getting that saddle shine on the back side. I was now pretty comfortable on a horse. I had learned that, by and large, the horse knew ''cattle'' a lot better than I did. The horses seemed to understand the temperament of cows and what they were thinking. It seemed that the horse knew what the cows were going to ''do'' before the cow done it. When we pushed cattle I noticed the horse watched them intently, kinda like a dog watching sheep. We would plod along, going slow and letting the cows make their own pace because the Association did not want you to ''run the cows'' lest it cost them weight and money so we generally let them make their own pace. The horses would follow on behind or on the wings of the herd. Sometimes cows don?t want to move off the good grass to another location and they will cut back after they have gone some distance. The horses watch for this and with little or no attention from the rider (me) the horse will spin on a dime to block the cows path. I hate to admit it but I was left ''sitting on air'' a couple of times when my horse kinda spun out from under me. I would be riding along, happy as a clam, looking for elk or deer on the mountain and the horse would be watching the cows. I would be day dreaming and my horse would simply ''slide from under my fanny'' and the ground would catch me. On those occasions the horse would stop and look around at me with the question in his eyes.....''What the hay are you doing down there fella''. Booger Red and Gypsy were two that did this but we all got a good laugh out of it at supper. Art suggested that maybe he should put a ''seat belt'' on my saddle to help hold me on the horse.
My new hat was finally ''wearing in'' also. It had settled in to the shape of my head and it was tight but very comfortable. There was a sweat stain around the band and the brim was dirty from my hands. One side of the brim was tilted up a little more than the other where I would grab the hat to take it off. It had a few dings in the crown from being dropped when I would hang it up for the night. My ''New Hat'' was losing the ''New'' and becoming a work hat like so many out there wear.
One thing that amazed me is that both the cattle and the horses seemed to know where we were going with little prompting. I could only believe that they ''knew the way'' so to speak, from one pasture to the next and the direction of travel associated with the time of the seasons as to where they were suppose to go. I have seen demonstrations where quarter horses can herd cattle like a sheep dog herds sheep. The rides simply sits in the saddle with his arms folded and the raines of the horse around the saddle horn and the horse does all the thinking and all the work without any seen ''prompting'' from the rider. Amazing ?..
The horses we rode were called ''Quarter Horses'' and to the ''smart aces'' reading this that does not mean they ''cost a quarter'' or ''three quarters of the horse is missing''. Quarter horses are a special breed that have the great ability to seemingly ''think'' and they have a natural herding instinct. They can go from a slow walk to wide open in a couple of steps and literally turn in half their body length and like I said earlier, ''They can leave you sitting on air if you are not paying attention''. (been there and done that) (at least twice, probably more but who is bragging)
I was becoming one with the horse also. I trusted him to take me across a shallow stream with swift water and a bottom made of slick rocks. I trusted him to take me up mountains that I would have had difficulty climbing on foot and then down the other side with his rear legs folded under his body and steering with his front legs as we descended mountain sides too steep for me to walk down. He would simply squat down and over the side we would go. I noticed that I seldom screamed on the way down now and I could keep my eyes open some of the time. I would still got a lump in my throat when I would look over his head and down a mountain strewn with large rocks, logs, fallen trees and other debris with a nice ice cold stream at the bottom in case you did not get stopped. Yes Mother nature had strewn these things around to make the ''downhill'' ride more fun.. (yeah sure)...........
I knew that I would miss this place with its horses and a man that I truly liked as a friend and a mentor. I would miss him for his wisdom and his laugh, his ability to make fun of you without hurting your feelings and to let himself be the ''butt end of a joke'' on occasion. I would miss that ''knowing smile'' like a Cheshire cat that had just eaten the canary and his patience with a guy from ''Back East'' and a greenhorn under his care. I think of him often now and sometimes when I see a pretty sunset I can still see his face in the clouds it seems ?.
Such is life and the memories of an old man remembering when he spent two weeks in Heaven at Taylor Park in the Colorado Rockies ?..
more later........ we move to Union Cow Camp tomorrow..........
