Final Horse Installment (for real this time… unless it’s not)

So, back when I started gathering stuff for these horse posts I asked my bro Wyatt if he wanted to think of some of his best stories and send them to me. But he never got back to me. Until the other day, after I had already posted the final installment. Then he sent me a whole lot of stories. Now folks, the reason I asked him for stories was because I knew he would have some good ‘uns. And folks, he did. VERY good. I laughed a lot. And so, I decided to post just a few of my top favorites so everyone can share the fun, but I hope he puts the rest up on his (meaning his wife’s) blog sometime and then I can point you all over there. Alrightey, here’s Wyatt (well, Wyatt edited just a bit. I don’t believe in exclamation points on each and every sentence. Just a bit much to my taste) ;) .

First I’ll have you know that despite Dad always mocking me that whenever I get on a horse it gets muddy or into trouble somehow, it seems like he has just as many stories when he was growing up about falling off, little girls breaking their leg, cowhide kites and so forth!

I was riding Moe in North Dakota out by the Merrits and all there is is just empty fields with rows of trees. So I saw a deer on the other side of this row of trees (the trees separate each field so you can kinda see through them to the field beside you). Anyway it took off and I sent Moe after him at full speed! It was cool cause he seemed to know that I was chasing the deer! So I’m running full speed and actually staying up with the deer and I figure that when I get to the end of the row I would just slip around the corner and chase the deer some more. Well I get to the end and turn, still at full speed, and there’s a huge forest right there! Seriously where does a forest come from in the middle of farmland in North Dakota? Anyway, Moe went crashing through the forest and I’m trying to slow him down, he was sort of slowed, maybe to a lope, and I had had my hand on the horn but just took it off in the nick of time! So there was a tree branch growing basically sideways about 5 feet high or so ( A big branch about 3 feet in diameter), well it hit directly on the horn and tipped Moe up and back and I fell off and he fell over, and I laid there for a moment hoping I was alive. Then I got up and stood there with Moe, me shaking and him shaking. And all that was left from the whole ordeal was a little scuff on the saddle horn. Needless to say, I thought a lot about what might of happened if my hand was on the horn or if the branch had been just a little higher. (I probably would've died). Anywho, that’s what happened. Crazy story.

The summer we brought Moe up to Canada I rode him every day two or three times. So one of the times Tate and I went down to Lee’s creek. It was hot and we had ridden close to where we went with all the cousins and we were jumping off the edge into the water, Clay was there, and someone’s truck or vehicle had quit because of the water when it splashed through the stream. Anyway, we were at the creek and Tate and I wanted to swim our horses and then we were like, well we don’t want to get the saddles all wet, so we took them off, then we were like, well we don’t want to get our boots and clothes wet, so we stripped down naked and hopped on our horses! We spent a good hour riding through the creek and somewhat swimming our horses, lots of fun!!! The funniest part, about halfway through getting dressed we heard people and quickly hid in some bushes and got dressed. A group of scouts were hiking that day and came by about 2 minutes later. (Side Note- Later that week, Trent, Tyler, Troy,Travis, Tarren, Tate and I went back to the creek to swim the horses. We needed a deeper creek or lake, cause Moe was so tall and apparently wasn’t interested in swimming. He would just stretch his neck out and walk through, never swimming once! The little chachie!!!)

FahsElle aka Warhorse (my mom said about this picture “Poor FahsElle. Is there no respect for all her service all these years?!):

We rode through the Dairy Queen drive through on horses many times, but this time it was me, Tate, Ethan, Kylie and Lindsay Ann when we were dating. Well, were sitting in line and some people jump out of their cars and asked if they could take pictures of us. We were like, “sure go ahead,” so they snapped a few pictures of us and then said “thanks” and were like, “All our friends in Utah will love this! Only in Canada could you see this!!” Well we all laughed after. Ethan and I were both from Utah at the time. And we are all now in someone’s scrap book. Good times.

I remember Ethan and I taking turns standing up on FahsElle and trying to get her to lope while we were standing. Pretty fun! We ended up taking our shoes and socks off so we could grip the saddle while we stood on it. Neither of us actually stood straight up and loped, but we got pretty good at loping just squatting on the saddle.

Thanks Wyatt! I’m glad you came through with some wicked awesome stories even if they were a bit on the late side. I had forgotten about riding through the Dairy Queen drive-through-- that was pretty cool.

You da cowboy!!