HAYDEN

right after i went to work at AZL they hired a fellow who i was aquainted with , but didnt know well. his name was HAYDEN. later on we got to calling him skinny  dog, but thats another story. he had lived in the chandler, queencreek area his whole life, went to school at the chandler high school and married a chandler girl.  he just hadnt had a lot of luck in finding a job he was happy with. he was a good horseman, had some good ponies, but didnt rope much but wanted to learn. his brother inlaw was a top header and competitor so hayden was wanting to catch up. there wasnt a more affable guy around, soft hearted and i cant remember ever seeing him mad. he fit right in with our crew of brigands. his first day they put him with me weighing fat cattle and loading trucks. we also had to keep cattle to the branding crew. they were turning out a thousand head a day so with twenty loads of fats to load and maybe that many loads of feeders comming in i had a pretty full day! any help i got was a lift for me. i was the only man on the crew with 4 head of horses in my string. and by noon i had wore out 3 of them every day. so a helper was just what i needed. we had weighed 5 or 6 loads of fats and hayden was penning them back in a set of pens that was just for that purpose. they had a concrete floor and the ally leading there was concrete. now my horses who were on that concrete could stand on it or run on it with out a second thought. but haydens horses hadnt ever been on it. i was amazed that they did so well. but on that 6th load hayden came loping around a curve in that ally when his horse slipped on a wet, slick spot. he scrambled his feet and stayed on his feet by bouncing off the pipe and sucker rod fence. as they came trotting up to me  haydens face was chalk white. with a sick smile he said his leg was broke. i thought he was kidding, but after looking at him i realized something was wrong.  i sent him to the saddle house and told the boss what happened. he sent a driver to the barn and took hayden to the hospital. sure enough broke leg, right above the ankle.  after two days off he was back to work! he took the stirrup out of the stirrup leather and put a strip of inner tube in its place. when on his horse he would pull the leather over his thigh as tight as he could and slip the loop of inner tube over the saddle horn. his broke leg dangled and he could ride almost as well as with a stirrup. he even got to where he could head steers that way. he stayed at that feed yard until it closed 20 years later. faithful and loyal. and a good hand on top of all that.