by Julie Carter
Wade
and Fitz are cousins as well as best friends.
“Primo” as they refer to each other not only explains their familial
relationship, but also their close friendship. By their own definition, they
have always been the family “black sheep,” adding to the bond that has kept
them close.
It’s
a fact in the cowboy world money is scarce and horses are needed. So the
typical practice is to look for some “cheap” horses and make them into good
ones.
Wade
had come across a grulla mare that was a bronc from the start and as the cow
working seasons rolled by it became apparent that might be the reason she had
been for sale in the first place. She was as Wade described, “a pretty son of
gun to look at” and he stuck with her until she finally became a good cow pony.
However,
her shortcoming was what we in the people world would call “a bit bipolar.” She
was always a bronc that needed topped off in the mornings but there were also
those moments when she’d go from being a handy, get-it-done kind of horse to a
lunatic bronc for no apparent reason.
One
morning, Wade and Fitz left out to go push some cattle from the low country to
the high summer pastures. Fitz was riding along behind Wade when they crossed
through a draw and as they broke out on the other side, the mare blew up and
went to pitching hard.
Wade
easily stayed in the middle of her and with each jump she got ranker and
ranker. Fitz was about to ride up and give her a bump to keep her lined out
when she made a big jump and stuck both front feet over her bridle reins. The
headstall broke at the buckle sending the bit and all back to the saddle cinch
and leaving Wade with nothing on her head.
Fitz
knew this mare could run like the wind and became concerned that he wasn’t
mounted good enough to catch her if she actually took off. Fitz hollered at
Wade to “get off.” Wade responded by stepping off but when he did, the mare was
on her way down from a high jump and it sucked him right under her. She was bucking
and landing on top of Wade for several jumps.
Fitz
rode in and hit her with his horse which untracked her and she took off in a
dead run. Wade hollered, “Go catch that hell-bitch.” So Fitz lined out on her knowing she could
run way faster than his horse. So he cut her off to the left, let her go away
from him and then ran parallel until he could get her angled to cut her off
again.
He
was packing a 50-foot rope and met her on the angle. He was 15 feet from her
when he closed in swinging a loop. She caught another gear. Fitz caught her at
20 feet and was already way behind when she grabbed yet another gear. Fitz and
his horse, Yeller, were flat out running and as a result, he missed his dally.
Fitz knew that if he had been tied off she would have never gotten away. But as
he put it, “she smoked us.”
She
ran down a fence line that cornered at a gate. The top wires on the barbed-wire
gate were broken courtesy of the frequent elk crossings. Still dragging Fitz’s
rope, she ran at top speed through that gate like it was standing open. She stuck
both front legs through the two bottom wires, tripped and fell head first with
all that momentum driving her into the ground.
It
broke her neck. Mercifully, it was instant. But Fitz’s heart was broken as he
watched it happen. All he could think was, “if I just would have been tied
off.”
He
rode back to tell Wade the bad news. With a frog in is voice, he told him,
“Wade, I killed your mare.” But in the nature of kindred spirits, Wade looked
at Fitz and said, “Good, it’ll save me from having to ride her to death today.”
Every
now and then Wade will mention the grulla. “I miss that mare but I don’t miss
topping her out in the spring.” And Fitz, well he knows things just happen no
matter how hard you try to make them go a different way.
But
he will never stop thinking, “if I’d just tied off that day.”
No comments:
Post a Comment