STRICNYNE

I MAY HAVE TOLD THIS TALE ALREADY BUT ILL TRY TO TELL IT FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE.  years ago I was aquainted and befriended by a rowdy old reprobate who was about the best horseman and rodeo cowboy and all around hand I was around. he told me this story about the 1948 Prescott frontier days rodeo.   he was entered in the team roping and calf roping there. at the end of the first couple days of competition he was a winner of several hundred dollars. a lot of prize money for those days. the last day of the rodeo there was to be steer roping.  some of the old timers friends convinced him to enter even tho he had never tied a big steer in that even.  but he was a hell of a horn roper and knew the basics even tho he didn't have a single steer roping horse. a good steer horse was a BIG asset in that event. in those days they roped thousand pound steers over a 30 foot score. not for the faint hearted or riders of mediocare ponies!! his backers went to another of my mentors JACK CLEM who had at that time the premier steer horse in the south west a big stout flying machine aptly named STRICKNINE! jack agreed to mount this southern Arizona flASH FOR 25 PERCENT OF HIS WINNINGS. THIS WAS A CUSTOM STILL ADHEARED TO IN RODEO.   when our heros name was called he mounted stricknine and rode into the arena. it had rained all nite the nite before  and a large lake stood in the middle of the arena a foot deep. the old timer called for his steer and as the steer cleared the 30 foot line stricknine left with a jar that shook chinamans pigtails on the far side of the earth!! the old timer told me that mass of flying equine mucle and heart rolled up on that big steer like a express freight runnin down a tramp!! he roped the steer, dropped the slack over the steers right hip and stricknine dropped left and caught another gear!! by this time the old timer had lost his hat and his shirt tail was poppen  in the breeze ! with his premature gray hair fannin the breeze he stood in his left stirrup ready to drop to the ground for the tie. he told me he looked down the rope and that big steer, on his side, was commin thru that big puddle like a moter boat throwing up a wave on each side 2 feet high!! he hesitated just a second until jack clen stepped up onto the fence and yelled in that great voice of his " GIT DOWN AND TIE THE SON OF A BITCH , YOUR COSTEN ME MONEY!!"  they won third.  first thru 4 th was won by ropers riden stricknine. as a little kid I remember that great old pony. to a little kid of 5 or so he looked like a elephant. but I never forgot it when my dad told me that old horse put jack clem in the cow business.