And Then
We Have Our Own Little Excitements That Are Of Intense Interest To Us,
Even If They Are Never Heard Of In The World Across The Snow And Ice.
The Rae family was very much upset two days ago by the bad behavior of
my horse Bettie, when she managed to throw Faye for the very first
time in his life!
You know that both of our horses, although raised
near this place, were really range animals, and were brought in and
broken for us. The black horse has never been very satisfactory, and
Faye has a battle with him almost every time he takes him out, but
Bettie had been lovely and behaved wonderfully well for so young a
horse, and I have been so pleased with her and her delightful gaits - a
little single foot and easy canter.
The other morning Faye was in a hurry to get out to a lumber camp and,
as I did not care to go, he decided to ride my horse rather than waste
time by arguing with the black as to which road they should go. Ben
always thinks he knows more about such things than his rider. Well,
Kelly led Bettie up from the corral and saddled and bridled her, and
when Faye was ready to start I went out with him to give the horse a
few lumps of sugar. She is a beautiful animal - a bright bay in
color - with perfect head and dainty, expressive ears, and remarkably
slender legs.
Faye immediately prepared to mount; in fact, bridle in hand, had his
left foot in the stirrup and the right was over the horse, when up
went Miss Bet's back, arched precisely like a mad cat's, and down in
between her fore legs went her pretty nose, and high up in the air
went everything - man and beast - the horse coming down on legs as rigid
and unbending as bars of steel, and then - something happened to Faye!
Nothing could have been more unexpected, and it was all over in a
second.
Kelly caught the bridle reins in time to prevent the horse from
running away, and Faye got up on his feet, and throwing back his best
West Point shoulders, faced the excited horse, and for two long
seconds he and Miss Bet looked each other square in the eye. Just what
the horse thought no one knows, but Kelly and I remember what Faye
said! All desire to laugh, however, was quickly crushed when I heard
Kelly ordered to lead the horse to the sutler's store, and fit a
Spanish bit to her mouth, and to take the saddle off and strap a
blanket on tight with a surcingle, for I knew that a hard and
dangerous fight between man and horse was about to commence. Faye told
Cagey to chain Hal and then went in the house, soon returning,
however, without a blouse, and with moccasins on his feet and with
leggings.
When Kelly returned he looked most unhappy, for he loves horses and
has been so proud of Bettie. But Faye was not thinking of Kelly and
proceeded at once to mount, having as much fire in his eyes as the
horse had in hers, for she had already discovered that the bit was not
to her liking. As soon as she felt Faye's weight, up went her back
again, but down she could not get her head, and the more she pushed
down, the harder the spoon of the bit pressed against the roof of her
mouth. This made her furious, and as wild as when first brought from
the range.
She lunged and lunged - forward and sideways - reared, and of course
tried to run away, but with all the vicious things her little brain
could think of, she could not get the bit from her mouth or Faye from
her back. So she started to rub him off - doing it with thought and in
the most scientific way. She first went to the corner of our house,
then tried the other corner of that end, and so she went on, rubbing
up against every object she saw - house, tree, and fence - even going up
the steps at the post trader's. That I thought very smart, for the bit
was put in her mouth there, and she might have hoped to find some kind
friend who would take it out.
It required almost two hours of the hardest kind of riding to conquer
the horse, and to teach her that just as long as she held her head up
and behaved herself generally, the bit would not hurt her. She finally
gave in, and is once more a tractable beast, and I have ridden her
twice, but with the Spanish bit. She is a nervous animal and will
always be frisky. It has leaked out that the morning she bucked so
viciously, a cat had been thrown upon her back at the corral by a
playful soldier, just before she had been led up. Kelly did not like
to tell this of a comrade. It was most fortunate that I had decided
not to ride at that time, for a pitch over a horse's head with a skirt
to catch on the pommel is a performance I am not seeking. And Bettie
had been such a dear horse all the time, her single foot and run both
so swift and easy. Kelly says, "Yer cawn't feel yerse'f on her, mum."
Faye is quartermaster, adjutant, commissary, signal officer, and has
other positions that I cannot remember just now, that compel him to be
at his own office for an hour every morning before breakfast, in
addition to the regular office hours during the day. The post
commander is up and out at half past six every workday, and Sundays I
am sure he is a most unhappy man. But Faye gets away for a hunt now
and then, and the other day he started off, much to my regret, all
alone and with only a rifle.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 50 of 109
Words from 50042 to 51054
of 110651
