By Julie Carter
My friend Maurice is one of the ranchers from a few decades ago that was a cowboy because it was part of the job. He never did think he was real punchy—he just got the job done.
In l946 he came home from the Army to find his brothers breaking a young horse they called Jake.
Maurice said in those days on the ranch they usually had several horses that could work in harness to do light duty in the hay fields as well be ridden to move cattle. Sometimes these horses were more like misfits that were too big and clumsy to be saddle horses but not heavy enough to be a good work horse.
Jake was such a horse. His feet were oversized and his head was a little too big, Roman nose included. Even though he wasn’t much to look at, he would fill a need so they decided to break him to the harness and to ride.
A most memorable ride on Jake happened when Maurice and his brothers were gathering cows. Maurice was riding Jake in a hackamore trying to teach him to neck rein when suddenly he developed a nasty little habit.
When Maurice tried to rein him to the left, he would rear straight up then run full speed to the right. When he’d finally get him stopped, turned around and back to the cattle he was fine until that left turn came up again. Jake would repeat rear and run scenario.
As luck would have it, Maurice rode past a cedar tree which had a broken limb hanging within reach. It was about the size of a small “persuader” so he grabbed it on the way past. The next time Jake ran away, he tapped him on the head with it.
He must have hit a sensitive spot because Jake was suddenly 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. Jake went down on both ends at once and sort of slithered to a halt.
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 had horses pass out under them at a high rate of speed.
“I hesitated to tell this story because I’m not sure about the Statute of Limitations on Animal Cruelty,” said Maurice. “But it’s been near 60 years and besides there is the possibility that I was experiencing temporary insanity at the moment of contact. Hopefully, I won’t 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 80’s and never hit another horse on the head.”
Maurice said his only regret was he was sure he’d lost any chance of being called a “Horse Whisperer.”
© Julie Carter 2005
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