The Glenwood post., 1904-03-19

urst PURCHASE 1TOu my uTst lTlcuo III
my new community. She came to
me without any recommendation Of
character. was witness Of the
transaction whereby she and several
others became the property of this
friend. l needed a horse for my
rambles over the mountains in search
OF ranch location and Miss Jones
was my pick of the bunch. She was
of Missouri saddle stock but had
grown to be six years old without bav
ing been taught any saddle gait.
Under any excitement or fright she
was apt to take on several gaits at
once. On one occasion, soon after she
came into my possession, was riding
her in a lane when at sharp turn
she spied dog. do not know how
many of her gaits she went into at
once, but the sound on the ground
resembled drum call with an ever
quickeDing roll till she fell fiat to the
ground.
l think now that she had posi- bly,
been ridden once before / got her.
She had been shod but that operation
had probably been performed in a
sling and only for the purpose of lend
ing an air of truth to the tale that
she was "broke' horse At any
rate, the first time l saddled her,
she assumed the broncho hump and a
hen could have nestled comfortably
under the rear of the saddle. / had
lost all ambition to shine as bron-
cho buster twenty years before, so
when Young man offered his ser
vices as a saddle warmer, | told him
to go to it. Miss Jones was rather
sullen and only on repeated launching
with bare heels was she made to
pitch little. "Oh, can ride her il
she doesn t do any worse than that,
said |. So off we started my friend.
his little boy and l. We had long
ride before us and I was pleased to
enough to let go of the bucking strap
and take life easy, what fine saddle
animal Miss Jones was. We had
ridden four miles. My hands were
resting lightly on the saddle horn,
the reins loosely passed beween my
fingers. The little boy was frolick
ing about us on his pony-my friend
and l probably talking ranch and
cattle. The exact topic l do not re-
call with any clearness for without
warning, even as thunder from a
cloudless sky, came succession of
giant powder conclusions from be-
meath and all trivial matters were
blotted from my mind.
Miss Jones was using her head and
neck as sort of fifth leg in SEEM
ing effort to leap hurdles that must
have appeared to her to have been as
close together as teeth in comb.
Each time she struck the ground she
would "bawl,' as the cowboys call
that grunt. To me the SOUND is akin
to the outbreathing of wood chop
per as he lands his axe.
In times gone by had weathered
several such joltings on storm tossed
bronchos but never without pulling
leather, and actually having hold of
it when the storm arose. When
taken by surprise the first buck has
always put me in the condition of
wool gathering that brick would
put one in If dropped on ones head
from an elevation something less than
the top of New York kyscraper.
Some instinct guides me to claw
wildly for the bucking strap but
have never been able to reach it dur
ing case of unexpected pitching.
How many times l reached for
that strap on this occasion could best
be counted by broken finger nails, OF
black and blue spots the next morning.
/ To be continued next week.