Character Horses

   We used to have a large group of Oriental people (possibly Chinese?) that came out on a regular basis to rent horses at Twin Bridges. They seemed to be very excited to be there. They made a great amount of noise and of course it was foreign to the horses. One day the horses were suddenly all filtering out of the corral. They had found a hole in the fence and were leaving that “joyful noise”. These people always stood on our one old picnic table and Ken (one of our helpers) started telling them we were going to come to their restaurant and do the same. They laughed and laughed, but continued to stand on the table.  In due course we would have everyone looked after. I remember one gentleman telling me he wanted a “clean” horse. Well that was funny, our horses lay in the dirt and manure at times.

 But I brought out a small black horse named Tarbaby.  (we called him Black Ass.) The man went off happily enough to join his friends. There was a lot of confusion and chaos when these people came in and I was always happy when I had them all up and on their way. The Chinese certainly tested our horses' ability for tolerance. They all had some idea that you pulled back on the reins and kicked like hell, to go! I never did convince them this was incorrect.
   In any case, all was quiet for a time until we heard the galloping of hooves. I looked up the lane to see Black-ass coming home in a hurry, with of course no rider! The horse only had a portion of his bridle left. Who knows what had become of the saddle and who knew exactly what had happened?? I would guess that the fellow hung too hard on one side or the other and eventually the saddle turned. Possibly the rider tried to fix things and Black-ass left for home? In the meantime, with the saddle under his belly he had kicked it to smithereens! He had also stepped on and snapped the reins off.  The rider showed up on foot later and none the worse for wear. That may have been the last time that fellow went riding-I don't know.

   A saddle is built on a form-called a tree and the trees of a good saddle is usually made of rawhide over wood-tough stuff! But then the saddle makers started putting out saddles with hard plastic trees and such was the one Black-ass kicked apart. For months after this incident I would be out on the riding grounds and find pieces of red plastic from that saddle.

   On the back of all our saddles was a name in felt marker. This was so helpers would know which saddle to bring out for which horse. We had one old reprobate horse named “Strawberry”.
 He had been in the string long enough to know how to look after himself when he had a crazy rider like one of the Chinese group. I used him every time until finally the Chinese  would come in saying “No Strawberry! No Strawberry!” I duded old Strawberry out anyway, telling the people this was  Roany” but he was wearing Strawberry’s saddle today. This horse of course was a roan color but his face was a lovely characterization that told of his attitude.  His eyes always looked slanted to me,

like he was just cooking up what he would do to the Dudes today.  
  We treated our horses as well as we could but once they left the corral with a rider, we had no control over what happened. I did however, in an attempt to ease their burden, make a rule that four rides was enough for any of the horses.  One smaller horse named Monty, especially could only handle four hours of Dudes. It was a hard life for them and I never held it against the horses if they retaliated. We would be able to look out and on the skyline see Monty doing his rocking horse thing. First he would rear, then he would buck and this continued the whole way home. It was obvious then that Monty needed some time off and we gave it to him.

   Upon arriving at the corrals where we put the Dudes out, there was a large sign stating “You Ride At Your Own Risk”. This I suppose was to protect the establishment from having a law suit against them. I guess it worked then but today I am sure “Guest Ranches” need a tighter insurance policy than that.  However, I must say in the time I worked at Twin Bridges there were  no serious accidents or injuries to any of the paying customers.

   There were times of course when a customer was not pleased with their mount and complained.  On one occasion a man said his horse “would not go”. The horse in question was Ladybird, she wasn't a particularly stubborn animal and I wondered at the mans ability. My friend Ruth observed all this and she knew the horses as well as I did. She looked at the man and said”I bet I can take her out of here at a gallop” The man handed over the reins and as Ruth got on she dug the toe of her boot into Ladybirds side and left at a gallop, winning the bet easily. Still angry the man said something about Ruth trying to make a fool of him. She replied “Nope the horse already did that” Possibly this was not the way to be “nice” to customers but we were quite cocky and full of “attitude” in those days.

   The dude string did well while I worked there and some days my jeans were so full of money I could hardly walk. I believe I made 10% of the take on a daily basis. I had quite a bank account. It was easy to save money when you worked seven days a week- no time to spend any of it. On the days that it rained hard and kept it up, I was able to go to town and loved spending money. It really was a fun time of my life.