It's me, Shakespeare again. I've thought of another story to tell.
Have you ever watched your horses? Did you notice how most horses have one other horse they like to be around more than the other horses? Today, I found out humans do the same thing.
Dad's normally pretty calm and even keeled. But today, I could tell he was real excited. When we were riding, doing our everyday jobs, I could feel Dad's excitement. He kept telling me that company was coming... special company. Jim, Dad's best friend for 20 years was coming to the Rafter G.
We finished work early, and Dad headed to the airport to get Jim. Everybody at the corrals knew when they got back. You couldn't miss the laughter and the "Remember when's" as they got out of the pickup. It seems Dad and Jim hadn't seen each other in about a year, and they were sure having fun catching up!
Next morning, Jim came with Dad to work. He wanted to play cowboy. Jim lives in Austin, but he'd ridden horses quite a bit. However, it was mainly trail rides. And cow work is WAY different than trail rides. Today, Jim was going to get an education.
Dad put Jim on steady old Tinsel. Tinsel is a pretty good cow horse, and he's calm and gentle. You're not going to get into a wreck riding him. We started out riding pens at the feedlot, and Jim was having a ball. He learned how to open gates from horseback, and Dad had him guard the gate while he and I went into the pens to check for sick calves. After a while, Dad let Jim go in and cut out a few sick ones. This was the first time Jim had done any real cowboy work, and he was loving it!
It took a couple of hours to ride the pens and doctor the sick calves. Then we went to check pastures. Jim wanted to get in as much riding as possible in the short time he was visiting, so we rode to a couple of the pastures instead of trailering. They were only a couple of miles away, so we headed out at a quick trot. Jim was doing all right, but he didn't exactly have the rythm of the trot and was bouncing around a little bit. We put in about 15 miles, all told. That's a lot of horseback, if you're not used to it. Especially with the cutting we do in the pens. And when the day was done, Jim was walking a little stiff. He was still smiling and laughing, and cutting up with Dad. It was a fun day, watching those two acting like young pups. And the stories I heard!
Next morning, Jim came out with Dad to feed. He was still laughing, but he was walking kinda funny. Dad asked him if he wanted to ride again, and Jim kind of hem-hawed around. Dad took that as a no. Jim said he was kind of glad, and I heard him say something about having blisters on his butt. That sounds uncomfortable to me! I guess it's easy for a human to overdo it... this cow work is sure different than trail riding.
Jim has come back out several times to visit, and every time he comes we ride. He's making a pretty good hand these last few trips out, learning to be a cowboy. He's a lot of fun to be around... in fact, he's become one of my favorite humans.
I can understand why he's Dad's best friend.
Until next time..
Shakespeare
