So one time he came to the ranch to file on some land and we had to ride
about fifteen miles. He told me to be sure to give him a gentle horse
and I thought I did. I saddled his horse next morning and gave him the
bridle reins and turned around to get on my horse, when I heard a
terrible noise. I looked around and Charlie was down on his back with
his foot fast in the stirrup, and the horse jumping and striking at him.
I ran and caught his horse and got him loose. He had lost his hat and
his clothes were dirty. He said, “This is another one of them damn
gentle horses you have been telling me about. Now I have got to ride him
fifteen miles with a hump in his back. I will feel good all day.” I
don’t think I tried to get him to gallop but he said every time he tried
to hurry that horse he would hump up like he was going to buck until he
would pull him down to a walk.
He wrote me a letter when he went home and painted a picture of himself
down on his back with his foot fast in the stirrup. He said it reminded
him of a friend of his in Great Falls that sold a man a horse and told
the fellow it was a regular lady’s horse, but had killed two men in
Butte afterwards.
For thirty years, Charlie Russell owned a pinto named Monte that could
almost talk. I don’t believe Monte was ever in a stable until he was
twenty years old. When Charlie quit riding the range and went to living
in town, he built Monte a stable but Monte didn’t like civilization and
would not stay in the stable unless he was tied up, then he would be
very nervous and would never lay down. But after some time Charlie found
out there was only one way Monte would compromise and that was to leave
the stable door open and Monte would lay down with his head out the
door—he took no chances on being shut in.
Charlie and I had about fifty head of mares at the ranch. That was of
the Mustang Stock. We raised some good tough saddle horses but in
general they weren’t much to look at—pintos, buckskins, all kinds and
colors.
So I began looking for a better grade of a stallion to improve our herd.
I finally contacted a fellow by the name of Jake Dehart and he told me
he had a fine stallion to sell, so I went to look at the horse. He was a
terrible looking sight. He had been neglected, was sick and badly run
down. His legs were swelled up almost as big as his body. He hadn’t shed
his winter coat of hair and looked like anything but a horse. Dehart
showed me the registered papers of the horse and they were O.K., in
fact, he was an imported horse and of fine breeding. I didn’t know
whether I could save the horse or not. Looked like he might die any
time, so I told Dehart I would trade him a bunch of horses for the stud.
We set a date when he would come to the ranch to look at the horses that
I was to trade him. I told Dehart I thought I could give him about 20
head of horses for his stallion. Our horses run on the open range and it
took several days to gather them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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