the match race.

in 1971 i was a quite a dashing , swaggerin cowpuncher. i roped better than most, was mounted better than most, had a new pickup and horse trailer and was workin for the best feed yard anywhere! world by the tail with a down hill drag!
    the fourth of july was rollin around and i hadnt had a dy off in 3 monthes. i was the only single man there so i caught all the guff. the boss loaded up and headed to prescott for the rodeo with out so much as a fairthee well . as his dust settled the head cowboy came up to me and told me the boss said i had the 4 th off, all 3 days! it didnt take me but a minute to hook up the trailer, load ole reble and hit the road to mormon lake! there was a big ropin there, a dance every nite and tons of good lookin girls who liked cowboys!  that good horse belonged to the company, he had been to the track and had run in the all american futurity almost winnin it. at mormon lake i unloaded ole rebel and the pheonix crew fom the company was there trying to get me to allow them to match a race. now i was allowed to haul that good horse as long as i DIDNT match any races! i held out for two days but i had won a couple of pots, was pretty flush and my ego was pushing out through my ears! i finally agreed to the match. a good friend was to jocky ole rebel and there was a ton of money bet!  now ole rebel could run a hole in the wind but he was lazy as all git out. i told the jocky to spank him all the way down the track and that bay mare would choke in his dust. nhalf way down the track my jocky had a 5 horse lead and sure enough quit spankin the big brown. he was lookin back laughing at the finish line when the bay mare hit them and all went down in a jumble! the horses were fine, the other jokey was fine andmy jocky went to the hospital with a concussion. fights broke out every where. the sherrifs deputys stood back in fear of their lives.  all the way home the next day i kicked myself in the butt for allowing myself to be talked into such a deal. there were over two thousand people watching that race, half of whom knew the boss. next morning i got up extra early, went to the mbosses house. he was eating breakfast and offered me some. i declined as i didnt want to get sick on it. i proceeded to tell him the whole sorry story. he listened, not saying a word but his face was turnnin red as i finished. he glared at me and told me to get to work. i went.   later that day he drove up to where i was riding pens and said he had talked to some of the folks who watched the race, said you should have won it he said, then drove off. it was never mentioned again.