Nostalgia

Having looked back at my recent blog history, most if not all of them since I got back on Litnet in October (?) involve booze in some way or another, possibly leading you to believe that I'm guzzling Jack and Cokes from dawn till dusk.
And, most (I can think of two exceptions) involve my summer at Cherokee Park Ranch (can you tell I absolutely love and miss it?) Anyway, I thought I'd share some stories about not being sloshed for once to prove that I'm not a drunkard.

One story that comes to mind was around the middle of the summer when the wranglers were starting to get bored waiting for rides to come in. We have three draft mixes (please don't ask what breeds, I just know they're big and one is a Belgian.) Odie, Muffin, and Glacier. Odie is the lovey-duvy of the ranch. And the eater. Anything Odie can fit his mouth around, Odie eats. He has eaten more wrist watches than I think any horse needs to eat. Glacier is a quarter-something mix, and he is more quarter in character and draft in size. I wouldn't say he's smart- he just has a knack for being an idiot. Anyway, we had one ride out that wasn't going to be back for a long, long time. John Michael, Kendel and I decided to ride Odie and Glacier around the saddling pen. Bareback. Kendel and John Michael doubled up on odie, and I stepped off the porch onto Glacier. Keep in mind neither of these horses respond well to leg cues- you have to pull their heads around to get them to do anything but go. Anyway, Glacier took my left turn signal as a 'start trotting around the pen.' Odie saw Glacier start to move, so he followed. Around and around we go, and all the other horses (around thirty of them) that are crammed into this pen with us start getting a little pissed off. Ears pin back, heels start to kick up, and I hear John Michael behind me screaming/laughing at Kendel 'DO SOMETHING!!' to which Kendel replies 'LIKE WHAT?!' I'm just holding onto Glacier's mane, hoping to God he doesn't decide to clothesline me on the dead tree that Dickie hasn't gotten around to cutting down yet. A few more passes and I can see that my horse (Pinto) is about fed up with this and his hooves missed my kneecap by about an inch. I bailed off onto the fence and laid there on my stomach, laughing as Odie continued to charge around the pen. Finally, Kendel and John Michael fall off relatively near the porch, and about the time they were up off the ground we got a call from the boss lady 'No riding bareback in the corral . . .' with a hint of a suppressed chuckle.

Another story was near the end of the summer when we were all extremely comfortable in our jobs and even starting to get a little too relaxed. Cameron, who was a second year wrangler, was out to run the horses in. Well, despite the fact that it has been tradition to run the horses past the guest cabins since the early seventies, the herd still diverts to all areas of the ranch, mainly where the green grass is. Duh. Anyway, Cameron got the main herd run in with the exception of Saratoga, an old brood mare (and the most notorious bucking horse we have. She isn't un-trained- she's one of the best trained horses on the ranch. She's just a *****.) Saratoga took a detour to the mare's pasture, where our six new babies were living with their mothers. Cameron had to go through an electric fence to get to her, though we aren't too sure how she got across it in the first place. His horse, Frank, is the spookiest critter ever to grace God's green earth. Now, Cameron has been working with Frank for a while, and Frank is pretty comfortable with him. As Cameron is unhooking the electric fence, Frank began to nibble on his ear. At that moment, Cameron managed to ground himself on the metal barn next to him, shocking the bejeezus out of himself, and Frank.
Meanwhile, down at the corral, we see Frank hightailing it up the road, reins dragging, stirrups flapping, and no Cameron. A few moments later, we see Cameron sprinting up the road after his horse, calling for help. The boss ended up catching Frank up at the house, and introducing Cameron to our new guests as 'the horse whisperer.'