Miss Silly
By: George Michaud
Henry Johnson the rancher I was working for, he had just bought Star Light. That is when I first met Star Light. He just happened to have this wonderful horse that needed a little work. In other words he wanted me to train her. She was a blood bay and about 14 ½ hands tall that had been treated badly her whole life. The name Star Light just didn’t fit her so I decide right then and there that Miss Silly fit her much better. She was cowboy broke in other words she thought the minute you almost got on she was supposed to buck and rear up. She was also hard mouthed due to the cruel bits that had been used on her. She was real smart in fact sometimes to smart for her own good.
I went into the tack room and got my saddle and bridle then entered the carrel. Star light just stood there watching me acting like the most docile horse on the ranch. She was also a great actress. I tied her halter rope to the fence and proceeded to saddle her. After cinching the saddle down I put the bridle on her and everything was still fine. I untied the halter rope and led her into the center of the carrel.
This is where the fun began, I put my foot into the stirrup and reach for the saddle horn to pull myself into the saddle. Just as my hand touched the horn she was gone and I was left standing with my foot in the air wondering what happened to the horse. This went on a couple of times until I put my left shoulder against her left shoulder turned the stirrup towards me, putting my foot in the stirrup I grabbed the saddle horn. She was at a full run and I was in the saddle due to the G force. As soon as she realized I was in the saddle she reared up trying to unseat me. I stuck with her and since I didn’t stick the spurs to her she didn’t buck. I didn’t even own spurs and I still don’t she did a couple of crow hops and that was it except for the racing around the carrel.
When I finally got her stopped I decided to switch the bridle with the bit for a mechanical hack. This set up put the pressure on her nose and not in her mouth. She seemed to like this arrangement much better and I could control her somewhat. I never could stop her from running the minute I touched the horn but after awhile I got to like it a lot, it made getting on much easier and faster. Plus it was fun to watch other people try to mount her.
Miss Silly and I developed a sort of bond between us at first it was a bond between her, oats and me, I supplied the oats. Every morning when I went out to catch her I whistled and gave her a coffee can full of oats. Soon all I had to do was whistle and she would come running to me no matter where she was at but I better have at least a handful of oats.
We spent everyday together working cattle which she hated, her idea was that whenever a cow went somewhere it was supposed to run. If the cow wouldn’t run she would bit it in the butt. We were sorting pairs that is sorting out a cow and calf and moving them to another pasture. We sorted more pairs than any of the other cowboys. The ranch manager kept telling me to slow down and I told him to tell it to the horse because I was only along for the ride.
Sorting this fast was her idea those cows and calves hit the gate at a run. We were doing this in preparation for the big cattle drive. This was going to be my first cattle drive and I think it was Miss Silly’s also.
The next morning I was up early getting ready for my first cattle drive. I brushed Miss Silly until she shined then I saddled her and lead her to the back of my pickup. I didn’t have a trailer to get her down to the ranch so she rode in the back of the pickup.
Silly loved to go for rides in fact she liked it so much she would jump into the back of my ¾ ton International pickup. If the tail gate on a pickup was down or a horse trailer tail gate was open she would load herself and she wouldn’t get out until you took her for a ride.
When she rode in the back of the pickup she wanted to go fast, she would lay her head on the cab of the truck with her ears back enjoying every minute of it. If I wasn’t going fast enough to suit her she would start pawing on the truck bed.
When we arrived at the ranch I dropped the tailgate, Silly jumped out ready for work. We waited for Henry and the other ranch hands to get saddled. Henry told us we would be gathering the herd of steers to drive down to the main head quarters. The Main Ranch was 20 miles away so it was going to be a long day driving cows.
Silly and I were directed to head for the south fence line to start gathering steers and herd them to the main gate with the rest of the steers. This were going good we worked picking up the steers and headed towards the rest of the herd, well at least for a little while anyway.
The closer we got to the gate the more Miss Silly started dancing sideways and trying to the steers to run. When we finally got them with the rest of the herd Silly couldn’t stand it any longer. Rearing up she jumped into the middle of the herd biting the nearest steer in the butt. Suddenly we had cattle running in every direction with Silly after them as hard and fast as she could run. Needless to say this didn’t make Henry or any of other cowboys happy after all the work they had done gathering the herd.
Silly pick out one group of steers and we were off to the races. She would bring me up to the left side of a steer and we would be the next to it for about 20 seconds at which time she would circle out the coming back into the herd picking out another steer cut it out then doing the same thing over and over until I finally got control of her. By the time I got back in control we had cattle scattered over hell and gone.
When I got them all gathered up and back with the rest of the herd the cowboys were saying all kinds of bad things about my horse. They found out Silly was from the wild horses that one of the original homesteaders had fenced in. These horses came from the Indians who had stolen them a long time ago and would just turn loose in North Park. They were basically Indian Buffalo Ponies. According to the local cowboys these horses had no cow sense because you couldn’t get them to jump in front of a steer to cut it off. A lot of them you couldn’t mount on the left side. They would just keep moving in a circle away from you. If you mounted on the right everything was fine though. These horses were hunters.
The drive finally got started down the road to the main ranch but I could tell Silly was not a happy camper. The cattle were walking, this was something she didn’t think they should be doing and I was having a hard time trying to hold her back. She kept trying to get them to run by the time we got the cattle to the ranch and in the corral I was worn out. Silly was mad as a wet hen. She had her ears laid back and she was dancing sideways. We put the horses in the barn giving them a little grain while we went in and had lunch.
After lunch we went out to check on the horses and load them up in the trailers for the ride back home. Walking out the door the first thing we noticed was that all the horses were loose and wondering around in the yard. Silly had taken it upon herself to untie herself all the other horses, more bad comments about my horse. I didn’t know she knew how to do this trick.
We caught up the horses and tied them to the hitching rail. I double knotted Silly’s lead rope to make sure she didn’t do that again. I didn’t know she could untie double knots, but I found this out rather quickly.
Then the worst thing that could possibly happen did. The ranch manager was showing off his brand new ¾ ton 4X4 Ford pickup and he made the mistake of dropping the tailgate to show off the bed of his new truck. Silly took this as her invitation to go for a ride. She untied the halter rope and jumped into the bed of the new truck where started pawing on the bed of the truck.
The ranch manager told me to get her out of the immediately and I tried so did everybody else but it didn’t happen. I told the boss he was going to have to take her for a ride before she would get out. This really made him a very unhappy person. Finally he drove around the yard several times which satisfied Silly, when he stopped the truck and dropped the tailgate Silly jumped out. That was the end of my career as a cowboy for some reason we were both fired.
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