11/24/05 Dot stories, Part one

Kids horses are a special breed no matter what their pedigree. I'm Jeff Keane I'll tell you about the ranch's special kids horse right after this. Dot was a good ranch horse that became a great kids horse. Mom bought the pretty black filly she named Dot before she married Dad and trained her to the point she was not only a good cow horse but could do some basic tricks like counting, placing her front feet up on blocks, talking for treats and would run at a even gait for some simple trick riding moves. Mom said teaching Dot was easier than teaching my brother and me. Maybe Mom just meant Dot paid better attention than we did  yeah that must have been what Mom meant. It wasn't long after Mom moved to the ranch with Dad that Dot came to the place to stay. So, when I was ready to ride a horse without being led, Mom turned most of my training over to Dot. Now when you're four or five years old and reach the point of helping move cattle, you figure if a cow needs to be turned you need to get there faster than the horse is going, no matter what the speed. So with scrawny little kid arms and legs you figure you should use a little quirt or a touch of the spur. Well a quirt applied by a puny kid using most of his strength to stay on probably feels like a nuisance fly to a horse and most of the spurring is just beating a pretty good tattoo on the saddle blanket which never really touches the horse. But the point was, Dot didn't think that she needed but about one feather of a spur to do her job. Now that's where Dot's training of young riders manifested itself and her teaching techniques will be tomorrow's story. I'm Jeff Keane.