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Anyone Lose a Horse? 9/04
Miles after the rodeo, I am riding a beautiful young horse that has one speed
which is great unless a little speed is needed. I look down the trail and see
two riderless horses. Several things run through my mind at that moment, one of
which is that Cowhorn has two roads out, these horses are running out on one.
Very confident that my mount is not going to "run catch'em". I began looking for
security but found the horseless riders instead. Not knowing where the road
leads, they assured me not to worry, they were taking a little break when the
horses walked off and they would stop shortly. I've been around horses all of my
life, those horses had a mission and stopping wasn't part of it. They lead
security, along with the help of Bubba and Gus, on a merry chase that went
through the gates and about a mile up the county road. After the rodeo and
runaway horses I was glad to take a break, after all, it was only High noon.
Evelyn
Posse Needed!!!
9/04
Linda, "the leader," made the remark that Craig, her 8 yr. old son, was missing,
simply meaning that he was missing along with the 70% who were no longer
following the leader. She was not worried since he was riding a 26 yr. old mare
who only follows one of her herd mates. As news travels, the missing boy story
got back to his grandfather, Buddy, that Craig was missing and his horse came
back to camp without him. Posse Needed! After a search on the four wheeler
Granddad found him happily riding with the group. A man reported his partner
missing and was terribly worried since her horse had acted up earlier in the
day. Posse Needed! Many riders immediately rode out with others mounting
quickly. Glad to report that she was found shortly, she had chosen to ride alone
enjoying the beautiful scenery and wildlife of Cowhorn. Sunday began with a
report of a man falling off of his horse, TWICE. When questioned, he said he was
trying to pick up his hat but found himself lying beside it on the ground. We
were assured the second fall had nothing to do with land nor horse, which paints
a believable picture knowing that his lounge chair threw him as well. Couldn't
tell what was in the huggie. No posse needed.
Rodeo???
9/04
The 9 a.m. Sat. ride began at 9:15 promptly with Evelyn leading a nice
uneventful, very peaceful ride. Butterbean's little white mule was terribly
misunderstood by a beautiful bay quarter horse causing quite a ruckus. Picture
this, Buddy was forced to jump off of his four wheeler, followed by the turning
over of the video camera causing all "support personnel" to RUN! The sideways
video is just down right funny to watch. As for the rider, she stayed her 8
seconds and completed the ride. Does this count as a Rodeo?
"Follow the Leader"
9/04
When hosting a trailride everyone has a job or two. I was assigned the job of
leading the afternoon ride, my thoughts were "this will be just like when I was
a kid playing the game "Follow the Leader" and I get to be the leader all the
time. This game proved to be quite different from my childhood memories. My
horse was walking so slow that he was falling asleep, I lost 70% of the riders
within the first 45 minutes. The other 30% were assuring me that there was no
need to stop and wait, the others were reloading their huggies and would be
along shortly. In the cut-over I saw a rider on a bucking mule and later
realized that the mule only bucked if his rider faced forward, wonder who's in
charge? I finally found most of my players at the watering trough and off we
went. I was so happy to be the leader again but found that to be short lived.
Soon I had only nine riders and they were in front of me. We passed a cross
trail with many riders and I heard them say "oh, I thought we were following
you." Now I am feeling really bad at my job when someone came up and gave me a
full huggie and told me that I was doing a great job, I soon felt much better.
Got to love horse people!
Linda
8 seconds?
4/05
Our friends from Pontotoc provided us with the first rodeo for the season.
Saturday morning was beautiful with sunshine and crisp cool air, but we still
had some mud problems. While running breakfast chores, I noticed the most
beautiful bay quarter horse with bulging muscles and much taller than the
average 15 hands. His handler asked me if I was ready for a rodeo, I replied
"only if it's a good one". I ran my chores and came right back for my private
rodeo and I was not disappointed. As the rider mounted, his horse's eyes widened
wildly, the rider grabbed desperately to tighten the reins but it was too late.
The horse threw his head down, bowed his back and commenced to bucking wildly (I
began to count to 8). Cowboy almost had control of this beast when it took a
sharp left slapping the rider on the ground. I give all the credit for no injury
to the mud and a very tough pride. You know his very concerned buddies did not
laugh, right? And the beast, he let his rider step right in the stirrup and
didn't cause anymore problems that day. Guess that cowboy showed him. Oh yeah,
he made his 8 seconds.
Scuba diving?
4/05
Again our Pontotoc friends provided us with true action. One of our gentlemen
Cowboys were trying to splash his wife as they were going past Beaver Lake. Now
you have to understand that Beaver Lake is a mystery to us all since it's
discovery a few years ago, no one knows its boundaries or especially it's depth.
As the story was told, our cowboy got a running start in order to cause a great
splash in order to "wet her good" but not all plans are perfect. His horse went
down slinging the mischievous husband underwater for a scuba divers point of
view leaving nothing but his hat floating as evidence. As for his target, she
sat high and dry on her mount and all the wives that read this are laughing.
The mud riding mule!
4/05
Berger came off the morning ride and the afternoon ride wet and muddy. He and
his faithful mule Benny Earl went mud riding. Both rides Berger came off both
time. With 150 plus rides riding the trails most with out incident we’re not
sure why or how Berger and his mule managed to find just the right spot in every
mud hole to go down, but he did. We can only speculate that it might have
something to do with the beverage that Benny Earl kept spilling. Of course, we
do know that Berger was no more sure on his feet than the mule, since Berger's
feet went out from under him while walking by the stage for all to see. Thought
we were going to have to give his best buddy CPR because he was about to die
laughing. What are friends for???
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