Life is an amazing journey and you never know what lies ahead. At this writing I find myself in a huge transition. I have sold my little ranch and have purchased a larger one in the state of Arkansas. It all came about at a rapid pace once things were set in motion. Our home had been on the market for two years previously. However, we were unable to sell, so we had begun to give up on that idea. In the meantime, my daughter and son-in-law were transferred to Arkansas and some close friends moved there as well.
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I have heard it said that a person only gets one really good dog and one really good horse in their lifetime. If that is the case, I have already had that one great dog and I just recently lost the best horse I’ve owned for over 23 years. I’ve never bought into this theory, but reflecting back over the years, I realized I’ve owned many other horses and dogs but none have compared to these two.
Some years ago, people in the Northern California area were offered the opportunity to adopt a horse through the wild horse adoption program. These wild horses were gathered by the BLM from the eastern Oregon and Northern Nevada areas. The horses were brought in and vaccinated and checked for general health issues and the nicer ones were brought to local fairgrounds on certain dates to be viewed and adopted. There was only a $75 handling and transfer fee, so it was easy for many to adopt a horse.
in the late eighties I was unemployed for a while. I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up. I reverted back to my teen years, when my grandfather had helped me learn to ride and start colts. I put an ad in the paper that I would start horses with the resistance-free training techniques I had learned from him. The response was immediate and within a month I had four or five young horses in to ride.
I always looked forward to the fall gathering in the Nevada high country. I would leave California in the middle of August when it was hot and dry and head up to the high desert where the days were still hot but the nights were cool. It was refreshing to think about riding up to about 6,000 feet where the grass was still green, the high lakes were blue, and the streams were still running full.