Curly Horses

    In those first days at the Dude Ranch I learned many things. At that time our facility was called just that, a Dude Ranch because people that were non-riders came out and rented a horse (usually for an hour). The people were called Dudes and the horses were the Dude String. It was a bit of a derogatory term and nowadays the people are called Guests and the facility a Guest Ranch
   When I first arrived I can only say I was just a small step above being a Dude, I could ride alright (or so I thought) but mostly I just loved these wonderful creatures and always have.  I found one horse pretty fascinating.  She had curls all over her body and a most ridiculous moustache!
She was of a buckskin colour and of course was called “Curly”. She was a good horse and had really tough hooves. Her only problem was sores where the cinch would rub the curls. We had to keep that area clipped or else put a felt pad on the cinch. The felt pads were my own invention and were simply a “sleeve” of felt stitched to itself and they were easily slipped on the cinch and stayed in place as well.

    There has long been a breed of Curly horses, known as the Bashkir Curly Horse from Russia? It would stand to reason in a very cold place the horses would have to adapt to the weather. The large curls of moustache would of course help the horse to breathe warmer air. But until I went to work at Twin Bridges I certainly knew nothing of them.

    For many years. There had been and Arabian stallion on the place and although he had passed on when I got there, many of his foals remained. For the fun of it Curly had been bred to this stallion and in due course produced a red filly who was named Wavy. Her curls were not as prominent as her dams' but she still had a different coat than normal for sure.

    When I arrived, Eileen was in the process of starting Wavy's training and each day we would put the horse on a lunge line and have the horse walk, trot and eventually lope on a circle. I was more than a little surprised when the filly reared in the air and came over backwards! Eileen took it all in stride so to speak and at supper that night when we mentioned what had happened Pops instructed us on how to cure that!  I was to get to the horse while she was down and drop both knees on her neck and tilt her head up and hold her there. Me?  Really?  Was he sure??  Well I am here to tell you it works. A grip of fingers in the nostrils may be necessary but having made this horse helpless did the trick. She never again tried rearing up. Many of the “old” ways were rough and tumble and at the time I did wonder about it all but who was I to question Pops? It was his place and I was working for him so....I did what he told me to.

    But there were times when we tried things on our own. We had two young men that liked to come out and help on weekends. One fellow, Doug was his name, thought he would like to be the first one to sit on Wavy. She seemed quiet enough and he carefully mounted her but she wouldn't move so I touched her up lightly with the lunge whip. Holy hell broke loose immediately and when Doug came down he had two handfuls of waves in his hands! No harm done but I felt sorry for Wavy as it must have scared her. Needless to say we didn't try that again and Eileen was not happy that we had messed with her project.

  The education I received at Twin Bridges would come back to me many years later in a “sticky situation”. On a horse trip in the mountains, our packhorse got itself in trouble on its tether. It fell down in such a way that it could not get up and in a panic was starting to beat its head against the ground. With very little thought, I found myself kneeling on its neck and lifting its head up while I hollered at my partner Ann, to cut the rope where it was tied. (It was just a small rope up there and the tether was much thicker) We were quickly able to set things right and no damage done to the horse. I remember Ann laughing and saying  ”What was that “shades of Twin Bridges” or what?”  True enough I guess it was, and most importantly the horse was okay.