09/29/05 Night ride

Night Ride I had the unwanted opportunity to take a night ride recently. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll tell you about it right after this. A lot of the night-riding stories you hear about from older days were about cattle rustlers, outlaws, or maybe a bunch of cowboys heading home after a dance. My night ride happened because I started to gather the saddle horses too late in the evening. I thought the horses should have been in a certain area since I had seen them earlier in the day at a water tank. I didn't find the bunch in any of their favorite spots on one side of the water and it was getting pretty dark so I decided to make one quick loop on the other side of the water, hit some higher ridges, and then head home if I didn't find them. I could just barely make out some tracks on one of the trails leaving water, but I couldn't tell how fresh they were. My horse put his nose to the trail like the hound following Cool Hand Luke so I thought why not give him a chance. That horse's nose took us over the top of a ridge where we found the horses in a little swale I'd never seen them in before. The only way I knew they were horses were their dark forms outlined against the light-colored bunchgrass. That bunch threw their heads up and ran toward me and my horse acting like they were disappointed I had found them. When they got closer I could recognize a few of the leaders, so I called their names and told them to head home. Well, they started for home in a nice orderly manner but that changed and we didn't get home for quite a dark while. The twists and turns of the ride home will have to be tomorrow's story. I'm Jeff Keane.