Jake’s hard-won lesson
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

By Julie Carter

One day a cowboy and his horse learned a hard-won lesson.

My friend Maurice is a rancher from a few decades ago. He was a cowboy because it was part of the job. He never did think he was real punchy ­ he just got the work done.

In 1946, he came home from the Army to find his brothers breaking a young horse they named "Jake." Maurice said that in those days on the ranch, they usually had several horses that could work in harness to do light duty in the hay fields, and be ridden to move cattle when needed.

Sometimes these horses were more like misfits. They were too big and clumsy to be good saddle horses, but not heavy enough to excel at work in a harness.

Jake was such a horse. His feet were oversized platters and his head was too big, Roman nose included. Even though he wasn¹t much to look at, he filled a need, so they decided to break him to the harness and a saddle.

A most memorable ride on Jake happened when Maurice and his brothers were gathering cows one day. Maurice was riding Jake in a hackamore, trying to teach him to neck rein, when he suddenly developed a nasty little habit.

When Maurice tried to rein him to the left, he would rear straight up and then run full speed to the right. He would eventually get him stopped, turned around and headed back to the cattle. At this point, everything was dandy until that left turn came up again. Jake would repeat the process with full intent of malice.

As luck would have it, Maurice came near a cedar tree, which happened to have a broken limb hanging within reach. It was about the size of a small "persuader," so he grabbed it as he rode past.

The next time Jake reared up and took off, he gave him a cowboy tap to the head with the new persuader. He must have hit a sensitive spot, because Jake was suddenly, and completely, unconscious ­ at a dead run.

Usually when a running horse goes down, the front end goes down first and the rider dives headlong into the dirt and rocks as the horse takes a forward roll.

Jake dropped on both ends at the same time and made a slithering halt, dust boiling up all around.

Fortunately, neither Maurice nor Jake was hurt, and as soon as Jake came to his senses, they went on about their business.

Maurice is sure not many cowboys have experienced this phenomenon because few have recorded events of horses passing out under them at a high rate of speed.

“I hesitated to tell this story because I¹m not sure about the statute of limitations on animal cruelty,² said Maurice. ³But it¹s been near 65 years and, besides, there is the possibility that I was experiencing temporary insanity at the moment of contact. Hopefully, I won¹t be prosecuted.”

He went on to say, “There was a happy ending to the story. Jake and I underwent total attitude adjustments. Jake lived a long life and never pulled his little trick again. I have reached my 80s and never hit another horse on the head.”

Maurice said his only regret was he was sure had lost any chance of earning the title “Horse Whisperer.”


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