08/16/07 Barn Myths

Sometimes even sage old timers can give a guy a little bit of wrong information. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back right after this to tell you about one of those times. Right after I graduate from college, I went to work for one of the neighbors. He was planning on back grounding a few hundred calves and had a nice bunch of commercial cows to calve out in the spring. Late in the fall he decided to increase his cowherd and hired another guy to help out. Malcome was a capable cowman and horseman. My boss said "you'll learn a lot from him," and he was right. Malcome had migrated from Oklahoma and had worked for big ranches, veterinarians, rodeoed and trained colts. So I did learn a lot. True to his Oklahoma heritage and experience Malcome also had a lot of stories to tell and kept us entertained when detail work got boring. One of my favorites was a story about some advice he received from his granddad about riding young horses. His granddad told him if he could get the colts in the barn the first time he rode them, they wouldn't buck. Malcome said the first saddling went perfect and he couldn't wait to step on the colt. Unfortunately, the procedure didn't work for him like it did for his granddad or it was a total barn myth. The colt used Malcome's head for a pinball between the rafters and tattooed his shoulders using splinters. Mercifully, the young horse sulled up in a corner and Malcome just sort of slid off and unsaddled. After that story, I always made sure of the actual outcome of Malcome's advice before I proceeded to employ it. I'm Jeff Keane.