Tonto - Horsey Hero

When Flec was just 30 days old I had a pasture fenced in barbed wire. Usually I came straight home after work but this one night I went to a movie afterwards and grabbed a hamburger. When I got home and went to feed, Pressor (Flec’s mama) and Tonto, my gelding came to meet me but I just heard a weak whinny coming from the creek and couldn’t see Flec. I found Flec with cuts on his front legs which were swollen and he looked quite stressed out. When checking the fence the next day I had discovered he had run through or into the fence and even broke a post in two. I ran and got a halter for his mama thinking he would follow but he wouldn’t. So I got his halter and a lariet and tried to lead Flec to the barn. I needed to get him into the barn so I could survey the damage to let the veterinarian know what condition he was in. In spite of him being only a month old, when he didn’t want to move I couldn’t get him in on my own. His eyes looked a little glassed over and I knew he had to be really, really hurting. I pulled on the rump rope so hard I ended up rubbing some hair off of his rear end. I pulled and pleaded with him but could only get him half way to the barn. I had tied his mama up to the corral fence but Tonto was loose with us in the pasture. All of a sudden Tonto trotted past me as if he were on a mission. Even though I was extremely upset by now I wondered where in the heck he thought he was going. If anything I would have expected him to just head towards the barn to eat rather than be running in the opposite direction.

Tonto trotted past me and past Flec and then turned around and put his chest up against Flec’s rear end and pushed him all the way into the corral. Three times he dropped his nose and gave him a shove using his nose also. When we were in the corral he stopped pushing and walked off to our side and stood there patiently.

Flec ended up with stitches, bandages and pvc type splints that he learned to lay down with and run in. Today you only see two small scars on him, one on his knee and one on a pastern.

Previous to this night I occasionally had considered selling Tonto thinking I didn’t need him. Once in a while someone would show up needing a horse like him and that would be a day I had decided not to sell him. Occasionally I would think I should sell him but I wouldn’t have any buyers. But on one day I had decided to sell him and some buyers showed up. We walked out to see him and there he was standing on 3 legs. He had a considerable limp and of course the people were miffed that someone would send them to look at a crippled horse. They didn’t seem to like him at all. Tonto did have a tiny mark on the leg he was carrying like someone might have kicked him. But the next day he was fine and that has been the only day of his life he’s been lame.

After the night he helped me with Flec (and since then he has proven his extreme intelligence in other instances), there is no way I would ever part with that horse. I used to look at him and suppose he was probably pondering whether or not it was feeding time yet and was probably sure it was. But now I look at him and know his thoughts run much deeper.

Tonto Bar Roper, Ropes Impressor, Ropers Reflection