Hat Tips

Hello,

Last week I told you about a few of the bucking horses and how many of them were given their names. I had a lot of comments, well two, from readers. One from my daughter and one from my current wife, Shirley.

So with that kind of response I’d like to visit with you about a couple others. Oh, and by the way, if you are calling to buy my donkey or my mules, you are too late. They are gone. No, they didn’t run away. Shirley and her sister, Rose, delivered them to Montana over the weekend. All I had to do was spread the word that I was going to have a donkey roast at the Green River rest area, and an animal rescue outfit in Montana called and purchased them! Man, what a wonderful country we live in.

I do have to give credit to Shirley and Rose, there are not a lot of housewives that can haul a trailer load of wild donkeys across two states, jump them into another trailer, and be back at the saloon in Medora for lunch!

I was going to tell you about Prince W. Prince W. was a one-eyed draft horse. I think we purchased him from a guy that hauled him into Towner for the Fourth of July Rodeo. It was always one of our biggest rodeos of the season. We were always short of real good saddle broncs and the owner thought he would buck. And buck he did.

Although he only had one eye, he handled nice, was gentle, and you could do anything with him. Except ride him. He was a horse that bronc riders loved to get on. He would jump and kick and you could usually win, or at least place if you held up your end of the deal.

The Watford City fair and rodeo was held in the middle of summer. Usually one of the biggest and best rodeos in the state. This one summer we had the stock sorted, and had gone up town for lunch at Joe’s Bar. Really. He had a grill in there. Not a real clean grill mind you, but it kind of fit our lifestyle.

Toby, one of the pickup men, was with us. As we were having lunch someone mentioned there was a horse pull contest going to take place in a bit at the fairgrounds. Dad mentioned that if he had another horse, he would put Prince W. in that team-pulling contest. Toby said his big appaloosa gelding was broke to drive and the deal was on.

They quickly finished their drink, I mean lunch, and headed down to the arena. They borrowed a set of ill-fitting collars and a harness from a friend, caught Prince out of the bronc pen, pulled the saddle off Appy, and harnessed them up.

They came driving over the top of the racetrack to the surprise of all the real teamsters there and got in line to hook up. I don’t know who was more surprised when Dad slapped that team with the lines and said “Git up Boys” and they put their heads down and pulled.

They placed second out of a lot of good teams. And about two hours later, Cary Hande won the bronc riding on Prince W!

Later, Dean