Just stories ?

[rancher1913]

no bore too it. would love to her some more oil patch stories.

[Boaz]

I wonder if you'll believe his tale. It is true, about a horse I had when I was a kid, and his name was Charlie. He was 21 years old, blind in his left eye, and as ornery as they come. His favorite trick, and he was very good at it, was to let you get him all saddled up and then, when you had your left foot in the stirrup the very instant that your right foot cleared the ground by about 6 inches he'd take off like a shot and leave you sitting in the dirt. Then, on foot, it would take several hours to catch him. He'd wait until you were maybe 3 ft. away from grabbing his reigns and off he'd go again. It was a game with him, but there was something basically evil about that horse.

Horses are perceptible , they repeat what works . I believe .

[Blackwater]

Der G, horses are like people, and I've known people who were like that. Just wanted to be the center of attention, always. Leave off his feed a day, and he'd prolly learn, though. Training horses is a very complex and often subtle thing. And it's the same with people, too. Most folks expect to just tell their kids what to do, and that's the end of it. But kids watch parents closely, and almost always do what they see their parents doing, rather than what they're told to do. And they come to EXPECT things to always work the same way, all the time. Change your response, and deal with things differently, and they don't know what to do, and often, will go with whatever their inner natural and innate instincts tell them to do. The soft hand can often "cure" some behaviors that a heavier hand would NEVER cure! FWIW????

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Yes, horses are peculiar animals. Handsome, useful, but can be very pig headed. In this horse's case it didn't strike me until years later that maybe he was named "Charlie" for a reason. Charlie horse. A real pain. My dad served in the Field Artillery when the guns were still pulled by horses, and learned the "old army's" method of horsemanship including "monkey drills". He advised me to pull the horses head toward the left while mounting, far enough around so that he could see me with his left eye. But he might have forgotten that he was blind in that eye. Anyway, pulling his head toward me got him going around in a counter-clockwise circle. I had the left foot in the stirrup on this attempt, and had to rapidly hop on the right foot following him around, but finally got mounted. Thereafter I got the idea to do it kind of rodeo style. I'd get him into a stall in the barn, climb on from the side railings, and then pull the latch open with an attached rope. I did get some good rides out of him that way. He tried to buck me off a couple of times, but my dad had taught me enough about riding that I was able to stay on this 21 year old nag. I'm glad I didn't know him when he was younger.....!

[rl69]

So which horse did you take the next day?

[Boaz]

I saddled a 3 year old sorrel that was broke but needed riding , worked out fine . He got an 8 mile easy workout and stayed tied while I finished . I expected to have some trouble with him but didn't push and he did good . Watered him at the river and made it back . Learning experience for both of us . He made a good working horse in a couple of years .

[Boaz]

Bought a black gelding , probably 10 years old at the sale barn . was branded (ranch horse) , figured he might make a decent riding horse for someone . I was doing a little horse trading then . He was pretty under fed and kind of sorry looking , he had high withers that were scarred up like most high withered using horses .

Fed him sweet feed and oats and had all the Johnson grass hay he wanted . In 2 months he was a different horse , I kept him ..best using horse I ever owned . He could get plumb out from under you cutting cattle . Always had to use an extra blanket because of those high withers .

[Boaz]

Yes, horses are peculiar animals. Handsome, useful, but can be very pig headed. In this horse's case it didn't strike me until years later that maybe he was named "Charlie" for a reason. Charlie horse. A real pain. My dad served in the Field Artillery when the guns were still pulled by horses, and learned the "old army's" method of horsemanship including "monkey drills". He advised me to pull the horses head toward the left while mounting, far enough around so that he could see me with his left eye. But he might have forgotten that he was blind in that eye. Anyway, pulling his head toward me got him going around in a counter-clockwise circle. I had the left foot in the stirrup on this attempt, and had to rapidly hop on the right foot following him around, but finally got mounted. Thereafter I got the idea to do it kind of rodeo style. I'd get him into a stall in the barn, climb on from the side railings, and then pull the latch open with an attached rope. I did get some good rides out of him that way. He tried to buck me off a couple of times, but my dad had taught me enough about riding that I was able to stay on this 21 year old nag. I'm glad I didn't know him when he was younger.....!

I'm glad for you ! They can teach you quite a bit even if they are ornery .

[Boaz]

Prettiest horse I ever owned I bought off Howard . Registered Appaloosa , gelding about 4 years old , perfect confirmation , beautiful horse bout 17 hands . He was a perfect strawberry roan , always had a weakness for roans and paints . Only problem was he was crazy , tried to make a rope horse out of him but failed . Wouldn't stay in a pasture , would jump a fence in a heartbeat . Spent a lot of time just trying to find him many times . He would just go haywire for no reason when you rode him , he unloaded me several times .I sold him and even made a little ...perfect roan but nuts .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMB8SwwKZsw

[Boaz]

Time to wind this down . I did day work working cattle , kept horses , opened a riding stable , worked the horse sales auctioneering but the money wasn't there when I married and had to get serious . I loved the life but it wouldn't feed the monkey . Started rough necking on drilling rigs steady , drilling and started a rig mechanic service till the boom bottomed out in 79' . Many more stories to tell about my cowboy period but will save em for another day . I'll tell one more story .....

I kept in contact with Howard , would stop and see him occasionally , if I could catch him . Last time I went to see him I stopped by the house , asked his wife if he was home . She said he was down to the feed lot .

Went down there . Howard was in his 70's , he was haying with a makeshift forklift looking homemade apparatus that worked off the tractor hydraulics . I know he welded it up . He was too old to be moving bales . I got out the truck and went over and just leaned on the pipe fence watching him . He was still in a hurry , still working . He saw me and waved , lol ..kept loading bales . I crawled the fence and walked out , shut him down and hollered up to him ....give me the cutters . He handed me his fence plyers and I went to cutting the binder wires and scattering blocks of hay . He shut er down , took a few min's climbing down and walked across the lot with his right hand out . He exclaimed ; I haven't
seen you in a while son !

He had hearing aids , he was stove up and moved slow , he was limping...he was old . We talked a lot , we laughed and told stories . He had been put on a short leash and hated it . They made him carry a bag phone and couldn't go anywhere without someone with him . But he confided in me he was able to sneak off with a trailer and horse at times but his wife threw a fit . LOL , I asked him how he was doing ...he looked at the ground and slowly said ...you would have to ask my wife ! I laughed for a while and he laughed too .

It was the last time I saw or talked to Howard and it was a good visit .

If I make it to heaven Howard will be tord the front of the line to welcome me with his hand out .

[Boaz]

I didn't tell these stories for self glorification , in almost all of them was failure on my part . If you look back behind you at the road you have been on you will see GOD's hand in your life . People he placed in your path that helped get you to and shape who you are now . You were tested and many times failed , you strayed but in your heart still knew him . But our Lord is still with us ...he never gave up on us because he loves us .
Not all your stories have a happy ending but they are what was . We have all run into a few purple people eaters along the way . In the process of our own failure we learned to forgive and accept the failure of others . No one here could cast the first stone . Our Lord forgives our faults if only we ask him and try to do better . His love for us is beyond our comprehension . He came to teach by word and living example . He said to enter heaven we must be as children . He gave his life to pay the debit we could not to be with us for eternity .

I am sure I will fail some more but I hope I don't let him down anymore than I have already . I look at every day to be a brand new story in my life .
Thank you for putting up with me .

Charlie

[Pine Baron]

Thank you, Charlie. These story's have brought back a lot of similar memories to me. What is amazing is, upon looking back, I can see God's plan all along, even though, at the time it wasn't evident at all. Thank God for his Grace and Mercy, through Jesus Christ. Certainly not through my feeble, inept understanding.
Go in Peace.

[Blackwater]

Amen to what PB said! Horses and cattle are two of the most beautiful creatures on God's earth. But most don't know that cattle (your basic, farmed to butcher cattle) kill more folks every year than snakes and stinging insects combined! They don't seem to be capable of harboring intent to kill, but they're excitable and VERY impulsive, and if you're in the way when they get an implulse .... oh well! Same with horses. I've always loved them, and admired them, but have preferred to do it from afar. My eldest uncle was an old FL cowboy, as were his sons. 2 of his 3 sons were rodeo cowboys, and I saw them ride broncs and one of them ride a bull once. Couldn't believe my cousins could/would do that! But I was very young then, and once I saw them do it, I "ALMOST" wanted to follow suit .... but not quite. Even as a kid, I had a healthy desire to survive, and I knew all too well that I didn't know enough to ride anything like they did. And the old Bramahn bull my uncle had as a sire .... well, THAT animal was a law unto its own self! It was actually homicidal, I was told, but he was a really great brood bull. I left glad that bull wasn't coming back with me!!! I'll always "respect" (read "fear" if you want!) big, huge animals with lots of muscle and no brains! And both horses and cows qualify under those rules, in spades, at the very least at some times! I guess the Good Lord made them that way to keep us humble, and so that we'd always feel our steaks and burgers were EARNED, at least by someone if not our own selves?