Posted on April 16, 2009 - by Hubba

Big Dan; Stop & Go

Will hurried toward me and Joe.  He was wearing a cap which was too big for him, so after he got down from the pickup I couldn’t see his face anymore.

Joe turned me a bit and wrapped the reins around my neck.  After a bit of commotion off to my left, Will plopped down in the saddle on top of me.  I wasn’t sure for a second how it happened, but I finally decided that Joe had just lifted him up.

Joe stood there for a bit holding the reins.  I could feel Will shaking up on top of me, but I was too tired to get excited.  After a few words with Will, I could feel Joe hand the reins to him.  By the time Joe handed Will the reins, he had settled down a bit.

Joe walked over and gathered up the other two horses from Beth.  He wrapped Pepper’s halter rope around his own saddle horn, called for Joey and threw him up on Pepper.  Then he checked Cessna’s cinch, gathered up his reins, and hauled himself into the saddle.  “We should be back in an hour or two,” he said to Beth.  She didn’t say anything, but gave us all, especially me I thought, a dirty look as we rode away.

After a nudge from Joe, Cessna walked out of the yard flipping his head, and Pepper followed very reluctantly.  I fell in behind Pepper, trying to ignore the kid on my back.

We all stopped at the gate, and Joe got off and opened it.  It took quite a bit of effort for Joe to open the gate and get Cessna and Pepper through.  After I walked through, it took even more effort to get them all turned around and shut the gate.

When he got mounted again, we started off.  We hadn’t gone very far when Pepper started pulling back on the halter rope.  Joe stopped, and Pepper took a poop.  We started off again, and Joe kicked Cessna into a trot.  I picked up the pace behind Pepper and felt Will clamp down in the saddle.  He was holding the reins tight, and he was so scared he got a little loose in the saddle.  I kept up with Pepper in spite of Will.

We had gone far enough that Will remembered how to ride again, even if he was still pulling on the reins, when Pepper stopped so hard that Joe almost came out of his saddle.  Pepper immediately started peeing.  “You son of a bitch,” Joe yelled “you had all day to do that!”

Pepper took his time, and me and Cessna stretched out too.  When we all got done, Joe looked at the whole bunch of us.  “Does anybody else need anything?” he asked.  “Are you sure?” he glared at Pepper, “ok lets go.”

Joe was starting to look a little Cranky.  This time he kicked Cessna into a lope.  A very angry looking Pepper followed at the end of his halter rope.  Joey pounded on Pepper’s sides with his short little legs, and looked like he was having fun.  In fact he seemed to be the only one of the six of us who was.

I was following Pepper at a very slow gallop, but Will was frozen in the saddle.  He was pulling mercilessly on the reins, and I could feel his free hand  clamped to the horn.  I was getting sick of the whole works of them; Joe the mad rancher, Cessna the head-tossing knothead, Pepper the pooping pony, and Will the frozen little bastard.

I was so busy being mad that I almost ran into Pepper when we all stopped.  “Dad” Will snuffled, “can I get off?”  “No you stay right there!” Joe yelled “we’re not having any more interruptions.”  Joe opened the gate, led Cessna and Pepper through, and turned them around.  This time he had even more trouble because he was mad.  I jogged sideways through the gate.

“Let the reins out, for God’s sakes!” he yelled at Will.  “That horse’ll run away if you keep holding him up like that!”

And he was right.  But what he said, or maybe the way he said it only made Will clamp down tighter.  I started walking circles around the other two horses.

“Jesus!” Joe exploded.  “Sometime tomorrow, we might get to the cows.  Did you kids bring your sleeping bags?”  Will was snuffling somewhere behind me, and Joey didn’t have anything to say.  Joe crawled back on Cessna with a heave and we took off again.  This time we just left at a walk.  I was tired of this already.