My dad was the kind of person who was infatuated with ideas more than doing them. You know like jocks who parade around on fields of vain glory thinking that yelling at children in little league or playing in a basketball league five nights a week, makes you Nolan Ryan or Larry Byrd.
Dad was someone who thought he loved horses, but in reality he never did a thing with them and just had them. He always told me he could break them as a kid, but he always got the Indians to break ours and Lord help those horses as they look like they came from Mexico and were half dead.
Dad loved harness, and tack, and liked wearing cowboy clothes, but that was his venture into being a horseman, even if we lived on a ranch.
He had his gods in a broken Hereford saddle to validate him, as Herefords in those years were the best saddle ever made and in Montana they would wait around auctions for old beat up things and pay hundreds of dollars for them.
I never thought much of it, as it was a roper and low back so you never had any support and was hard as rock.
I never thought much of his second purchase either in a Miles City saddle which was just as hard and was more like being poured into a saddle as it was so high on both ends for broncos.
Cutting saddles and ropers built for different styles obviously and I sort of like trail saddles as a combination, but it all comes down to wanting to stay put on the horse until you don't want to stay put on horse as being there is too dangerous.
Odd, as long a horse was not bucking nuts, I always felt more safe on a horse in I could always ride as fast as they could run, and after I learned to ride, I never fell off a horse in my life.
I miss greatly the things in life which gave me the greatest knotted up guts and distress from my dad always yelling at me about chasing cattle. I remember being in the saddle one Arctic winter day helping all the cattlemen move cattle from the pastures as an early blizzard caught them all flat.
I was with Lee, a rancher that day on is horses which were fine animals in pure quarterhorse. They trained their own horses and Mom talked to the kid a few years back, and he said those old horses had just died as he had kept them in not having the heart to sell them.
We broke snow trails for cows, cut fences, rode ice and ravines that day to find all the cattle. I still remember that kid slapping that horse on the ass when I got on her and her bolting.....gave him a look like this 13 year old wanted to kill that 9 year old for about killing me that day.
Most people do not realize that like my dad, most people are not worth damn in herding cattle. I have been around more horse people and they are all horses asses, in they are all in love with ideas of horses and don't know a thing about them or about chasing cattle.
Dad used to chew my ass for chasing the cattle so hard. I would reply, "Dad I'm not running them. They are running and I'm just trying to keep up".
He got me a cowboy one time to help. I will not say who this guy was, but I will tell you that if you saw a Kevin Costner movie, that this guy was the relative of one of the stars.
He couldn't do a damn thing with cattle. In fact, he was galloping along running the cattle to the other side of the pasture for some dumb ass reason.
So there I was going wide open, trying to turn the herd, while it was my turn to scream and point at that a stupid ass that he was running the cattle the wrong way.
Have no idea how a grown man can go through a gate and get lost in a pasture in not knowing the cows are to go out that same opening.
I do love running cattle though. I love running them in pickups or horses. It is just something that appeals to me to be able to drive a herd of animals and do it with precision. They don't give trophies for that stuff and I honestly am not into rodeo as wild animals and horse smelling women running barrels just have never had any appeal to me.
For me though, it has always been the love of the animals, as you could put me on a horse with a sack and rope and I would be fine with it. I don't wear cowboy hats, only would wear cowboy boots for riding so my feet would not be caught in the stirrups......and I don't pretend I'm Casey Tibbs (that is a really old cowboy reference like Jim Shoulders). I just enjoyed the work as my play, even if most everyone else was some low self esteem nut or an idiot who didn't understand the game.
Most people belong in easy chairs making things up about themselves as that is what is best. I still like horses in my Libby being cantankerous and Darby laying her ears back......and my cows taking a treat from my hand or lecturing me in "moo's" about the things they want.
People can ruin allot of things for you on a stage, and for me now, I just play for myself with no one around, as I never had any issues in needing a horse to make me into something.....as I already was something and if the population couldn't see it, that was their problem and not mine.
Dudes and crotch queens are like lounge lizards and bar flies........I don't have anything in common with them, nor do my horses or cattle.
It wasn't about dressing up as a cowboy or having a saddle with a name. It was work that I grew to enjoy. It is too bad most do not enjoy what they are doing and only are doing it have something to talk about over coffee or at work.
It is the tale of the Miles City Saddle.
agtG
