this little story happened in the early 70 s or late 60 s. it was when i envisioned my self a horse show trainer. we were in flagstaff at the fort tuthill fair grounds. it was a appaloosa show and almost everyone with a speckled horses was there as it was summer and it made a good vacation weekend for us desert rats.
i had won the halter class for aged stallions, placed in the calf roping and team roping. but there was a class there i never saw before or since. i dont even remember what they called it but what you had to do was cut a cow out of the herd, and then dive her across a horses show bridge that set out in the middle of the arena. this bridge was 4 feet wide and about 15 feet long, wooden, with side rails about 4 feet high. no wings , no fences to help , just out in the middle of the arena!!
my dad was there and he pointed out a fellow about his age that was riding a real good lookin gray appalossa mare. dad had grown up with him and knew him well. he told me that kenny would win the class because he was the only true cowman/cowboy out there. the rest of the contestants were "scottsdale horse trainers' which to true cow people or horse people was kinda like talkin about low lifes. those horse trainers turned out 90 day wonders . they would place or win performance classes for maybe a year and then fizzle, or burn out.
when the class started they run in about 30, big ole fat herford cows who were wet. we had roped their calves in the calf roping. the calves were still in the catch pens, while their mothers were being used for the cutting and this bridge event.
the cutting was first and it got those cows pretty stired up. my dads friend kenny won the cutting hands down on that gray mare. all the cutting entries stayed in the arena for the bridge event. kenny sat on his mare off to one side smokin and watchin the ground crew drag this brige into the arena.
the first 5 horses to work were these 90 day wonders . their scottsdale trainers would pick the first cow in the herd , put on a
wild slash and dash performance for 2 minutes, the time limit, and not get their cows any where near that bridge. we were settin in the stands and all the spectators were makin bets no one would get a cow across that bridge. dad was drinkin a coke and said out the side of his mouth that kenny hadnt gone yet. now if my dad was a bettin man he could have paid for the whole weekend with side bets. there must have been 20 horses entered and as time progressed it was evident that no one was gonna bridge a cow. all those "proffesional" trainers were doin was was gettin that bunch of fat ole waddle butted cows hot, mad and uncontrolable.
when kenny was called to work he was third from last. and no one had put their cow across the bridge. kenny rode that gray mare into the herd at a slow, flat footed walk. that mare walked so quiet that those cows didnt know she was there. pretty soon that old mare shouldered a little thin herford cow out of the herd . she had been hidden at the back side and hadnt ever been choused. as that gray mare pushed that little poor cow out in the open kenny reached down and pulled the bridle off! my dad was grinnen ear to ear as that gray mare met every attempt of that cow to turn back, or pass the bridge. pretty soon the old cow sulled up right in front of the bridge. that gray mare padded up on the cow, nipped her butt and that cow jumped on that bridge!! then that mare walked up on the bridge and shoved the cow off the other side just as the time ran out!!
kenny won the class, and dad told the horse show crowd if they were gonna have them kinda classes they needed to hire cowboys to ride them pump tailed ponys!!
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