Just Horsin' Around

Well, now I know what a day at the ranch felt like for those cowboys, because at the end of the day, every muscle in my body hurt. A guy in our Venture Crew runs a smithy/ rancher job at a camp not too far away from where we meet. We went up to this camp last Saturday, after my dad and another friend helped caravan the group up there. By the way, I identified 8 of 10 birds by their calls alone along the way. A personal best. Back to horses. It was a long hike to the barn, but the beauty of the place was worth it. Once we got to the corral gate, we met two curious horses who were used to people. There were about 15 in all. These two were not shy at all, and that goes for most of the herd as well. Once inside the barn, this fellow crewmate became our firm instuctor, as he was going to show us to clean a horse's hoof. They did not shoe them at this camp. There was a lot of danger involved in cleaning all four of the horse's hooves, and this guy was no exception to that rule. He had been kicked not once, but twice 15 fifteen over a stall wall, and he was a pretty big man! The horse he was going to "shoe" was about 15 1/2 hands high at the mane (I don't remember what a hand is equal to. Sorry.) He showed us, without incident, how to clean all four horses hooves, and how to trim them. I found myself fascinated as worked, at how the horses trusted him enough to "trim their nails" as it were. He gave us anatomy lessons, and several periods for asking questions as we went along our day. Next up, was how to saddle, mount, and ride his personal horse. I learned before kindergaten that you always mount from the left side. I guess that comes from watching too many cowboy movies. He mounted an rode out to the corral where he was training that horse. We found out there were four speeds to a horse, and that horse was learning the fourth, the gallop. Naturally, he let us pet the horse before he dismounted. He then showed us his expertise with whips. From coach whips to driving whips, he could handle them all, and well. He showed us the parts of a whip, and shared not a few stories of how he got started with them. To show us his expertise with a 35 ft. driving whip, he put a styrofoam cup of water on a trick barrel, and from 35 ft away, he broke that cup in half, leaving water inside. After that demonstration, we took the long walk back to the parking lot, of which on one end was a chuck wagon. The crewmate started to give us the history of the chuckwagon and methods by which the "cookie" helped or punished his men, since he was not only the cook, but the disciplinarian, the dentist, doctor, and close to anything else you could think of. Then we went over the parts of the wagon. The challenge course, which on the other side the parking lot was up next. We started out by thinking of someone who had influenced our live, and a word that describe that person. We had to balance ourselves on the l0g and get in anti-alphabetical order. needless to say, my insoles were screaming in pain, and I soon had to abandon the game. The next one, was the wall challenge, where you have to get all of your members over the wall. We suceeded, but it sapped my energy, and I felt like a Grand Mal seizure was going to happen any minute. This was during lunch, where we got a long break. After lunch, dad and I went out and sat in the rocking chairs on the back porch, just enjoying the quiet. All that happend was a 75- 100 yr old tree was cut down. And the guy doing the cutting didn't even yell "timber." Little did we know this was our service project we had been assigned. Anyway, after lunch, we got an eyeful of this tree, and believe you me, it was big and and tall! Our job was to clear away the branches so all that remained was the trunk. Well, this was no easy task, but with all of us working at it, it took less time then I figured. The brush trailer had to make two loads, each piled six feet high in branches and brush. We finally finished about 3 o'clock. The guy who was in charge of the very gratefull that we had come come to help him, and, none too soon. The sky was starting to turn that shade of blue that meant heavy rain was coming, was thunder was beginning to rumble. It took us a few minutes to leave, but when we did, I wish we didn't have to. It kinda' reminded of another camp...