06/30/05 Two grey horses I

Two Grey Horses I Rounding-up half-wild horses is like candy to most cowboys. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to tell you about one horse gather. When I was about five years old I used to like Dad and Mom to drive out the back way to town so I could look at the neighbor's horse herd and imagine getting to help corral them. Well, some dreams do come true because about 15 years later my good friend, Clark asked me to help gather his Granddad and great Uncle's horses for a July 4th rodeo. These horses weren't completely wild since they were corralled a couple times a year to brand the colts, geld the young stallions, or sort a bunch off for a rodeo. No they weren't totally wild but gathering that bunch was close enough to wild to provide plenty of excitement and trills for a novice horse runner. The pasture these horses called home was more or less a large triangle that was bordered on two sides by fences and one side was a natural barrier of sharp breaks that fell off into tall bluffs. Gullies, draws, and washes ran down from these bluffs to a canyon where the horses watered. The best plan was to slip down into the water canyon and start the bunch out toward the top of the bluffs. Clark and I got in below the horses and by working the draws and washes kept the horses from turning back downhill. We pushed about 150 head up toward the far corner of the bluffs. We sat out on one of the ridges just to let those horses know we had an eye on them while the lead mares and stallions of the different bunches settled their arguments and we rested our horses. Well, that's where we're going to have to leave those horses until I can finish this story tomorrow. I'm Jeff Keane.