little jake.

when  we were at the 76 ranch, our daughter who was recently divorced  was trying to gain a foot hold in the economy. so she would leave her son jake with us for the day while she worked. jake was 4 or 5 years old and walkin and talkin pretty good. he also took to horses like a duck to water.  in a real short time he was helping at the ranch, being my turn back man when I was schoolin a cutting horse and just my all around companion.  it didn't take him long to take over my good rope horse. they became pals  and inseperable.  I was schoolin a ranch horse for a ranch horse class at the Arizona national livestock show in January. jake helped me every day at the arena while worked the stud. if I was cutting jake turned back on ole yeller. if I was ropin jake worked the chute.
     when it came time to travel to phoenix for the stock show and ranch horse class I took ole yeller along to keep the stud company. of course my partner went along too. the mrs. sat in the stands while ole yeller was babysitten jake over in the warm up arena. she could watch jake and me from where she sat. it was a cold January day. we were all wrapped in coats and jake looked like a brown wad with a speck of yellow straw on top as he loped ole yeller around the ring. I got busy in the main arena and it was a while before I looked to see how jake was doin. I could see he was still on his horse but there was a crowd of people standing around him.  I could see the mrs. hurrying along to see what was going on so I went back to paying attention to what I was doing.  a few seconds later my  daughted called on the cell. she was all excited it seems jake was on the local news station being interviewed while he rode!! his dad had seen the interview and called my daughter raising hell about jake being turned loose on a horse. she told him he lives on that horse and be proud.   I didn't win the ranch horse class, but jake was the talk of the day. he s been doin things like that ever since.