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Smokey was a small, ugly horse, a dirty smokey [sic] color, with a dark stripe down his back. My father would never have had it on the ranch under normal conditions, but he had hired an Indian from the reservation to help him harvest the fall crops, and he had loaned him some money, that he couldn't repay, and so gave Dad the horse. Smokey had a bad habit of running away. I broke chin straps and bridle reins trying to hold him, he would run for home and go right into the barn if the door was open. Eventually I found a way to stop him, I took a long shank curb bit, with a wire jaw strap, and put an end to his running.
I rode to school in all kinds of weather, hot, cold, snow or rain, but with proper clothes I could keep warm and dry, Handling a horse in very cold weather could be difficult, if it were below zero, 40 below is the coldest I remember, great care had to be taken to get the frost out of the bit. A bit with frost in it can take the skin off a horse's tongue. The frost can be removed by putting the bit in water or blowing on it, the moisture from the breath was enough to take the frost out.
It was several years before I was permitted to drive the car, and then it had to be for special occasions in my senior year. The saddle horse was my transportation.
This was the first horse I owned. Dad gave me the gift when I was 8 years old, I named her "GERTIE". I looked forward to the day when I could train her. One day an evangelist came to the door and was explaining to Mumsie that the world was sure to come to an end in about ten years. My first thought was that I would have time to train my horse.
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Rights
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Metzger Memories
