06/19/08 Buckshot

Zachery, Monte, Buckshot, Simon  they were all rodeo work partners of mine a few year ago. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to tell some stories on them. An article in America's Horse magazine by Tom Moates on rodeo pickup men and their horses kicked in my memory of some of the horses I rode in the sixteen years I gathered cowboys off bucking horses. The first horse I used was a horse that had been used on a ranch and in cow cutting contests. Zachery was bigger than most cutting horses but was a fast athlete that made him a nice horse to use with the quick bareback horses. Monte Montana was a horse that came from of course Montana. I knew nothing of his history or early training except that it had to be minimal. Monte was fast; I think it was because he had no brain mass weight to slow him down. Simon was a horse I team roped on and used on the ranch. He wasn't a top speed horse but always gave one hundred and ten percent. I think the best horses I rode were used as pony horses on the racetracks. Buckshot came from the track and was one of my favorites. He was quick enough to use with the bareback horses but if he needed to he could handle the bigger horses. Whiskey River was a saddle bronc mare that outweighed Buckshot by about three hundred pounds and had a surly disposition about leaving the arena. I dallied Whiskey to Buckshot one day; he bowed his back and pulled that mare to the catch pen with her arena anchor still dragging. I sure enjoyed riding Buckshot. I'm Jeff Keane