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Idaman
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<blockquote data-quote="Idaman" data-source="post: 768392" data-attributes="member: 14119"><p>On each ranch there are people involved and some of these people can be real characters. At Empire we seemed to have way more than our share of the latter. Maybe it was because we lived in such a small community and were involved in each others lives like no other place of employment or maybe the isolation attracted a certain kind of person and they tended to be real characters. Of course we weren't oddballs ourselves. :cowboy: </p><p></p><p>It took a special kind of person to live in that much isolation and remoteness and of course some could handle that lifestyle and some could not. The native people were local so they were accustomed to the remoteness but that didn't mean that there weren't characters among them.</p><p></p><p>Since we hired everyone that wanted a job and had come out that far to get a job we passed through a fairly large number of people, at least for us. Some of them stayed as long as twelve years and others didn't last twelve hours. Most of these short timers were potential riders and various things got to them real quick.</p><p></p><p>One young man showed up as a horse breaker which we were always in need of. Our goal was to have at least 30 horses ready to go by early March at the beginning of the riding season. If we didn't start with this many in the spring then by the late summer we would be nearly out of horses to finish the year. There were always lots of problems with the horses in that rough country where they put on so many miles each day. Cinch sores, saddle blanket scalds, rock bruises, and back bites were the worst. Each cowboy had a favorite string of at least four horses that were for their exclusive use as long as they were working on the ranch. We usually had lots of young unbroken horses or could get our hands on some quickly if the need and a horse breaker showed up.</p><p></p><p>This man showed up at the back door late in the evening and asked for the horse breaking job. He said that he and his girlfriend had been living in an old Pontiac car for over a year and really needed work. We gave him some food and pointed him to an empty house where he and company could move in. I told him to show up at the barn in the morning and we would show him what was expected. First thing the next morning the cowboys brought the unbroken horses in and were anxious to see just what would happen. The young nan started with the first horse that wasn't even halter broken and quite an audience arrived. He was starting out real good and it was apparent that he had been around this type of horses.</p><p></p><p>After a couple of hours the audience dissipated but I stayed for a while to watch. About this time his girlfriend showed up out in the corral. I hadn't seen her before but she was dressed in spike heels, a leather mini-skirt, and what my wife called a halter top. She had quite a time negotiating the corral in the springtime in those shoes. She came over to me and wanted a cigarette. I was not a smoker so I told her to ask around. She told me that she had to have one right now and wanted to know where she could buy some. I told her that there was a small store on the Indian reservation about an hour to the north and that I would draw her a map of how to get there. I also told her that we could order some with next weeks' groceries but that would be the soonest. She kind of went into a small nicotine fit and mumbled as she walked off. I told her that some of the cowboys might have some rollins if that would help. It was about noon then and we broke for lunch. Right at one the young man came to the door and said that they just had to get closer to cigarettes even if it meant living in that car. I shook my head over that for several days.</p><p></p><p>Others came and went with just about the same haste and it took me a long time to figure out just what was happening. When I would send a new man to the barn to get acquainted and get some horses assigned the Indian riders would tell the new man all about how very dangerous it was working there since you probably would be chased by a grizzly bear nearly every day. They also relayed stories of having a big foot jump right on the horse behind them. Many times the wide eyed new man would hasten back to his house pack and leave. Most never gave a reason for the sudden decision and I had to figure it out. Only later when a somewhat veteran cowboy fired right back at the Indians that he wrestled grizzlies and had a girlfriend that looked like a Bigfoot did it become clear what was happening. The other men who had left must not have wanted to seem chicken or something.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Idaman, post: 768392, member: 14119"] On each ranch there are people involved and some of these people can be real characters. At Empire we seemed to have way more than our share of the latter. Maybe it was because we lived in such a small community and were involved in each others lives like no other place of employment or maybe the isolation attracted a certain kind of person and they tended to be real characters. Of course we weren’t oddballs ourselves. :cowboy: It took a special kind of person to live in that much isolation and remoteness and of course some could handle that lifestyle and some could not. The native people were local so they were accustomed to the remoteness but that didn’t mean that there weren’t characters among them. Since we hired everyone that wanted a job and had come out that far to get a job we passed through a fairly large number of people, at least for us. Some of them stayed as long as twelve years and others didn’t last twelve hours. Most of these short timers were potential riders and various things got to them real quick. One young man showed up as a horse breaker which we were always in need of. Our goal was to have at least 30 horses ready to go by early March at the beginning of the riding season. If we didn’t start with this many in the spring then by the late summer we would be nearly out of horses to finish the year. There were always lots of problems with the horses in that rough country where they put on so many miles each day. Cinch sores, saddle blanket scalds, rock bruises, and back bites were the worst. Each cowboy had a favorite string of at least four horses that were for their exclusive use as long as they were working on the ranch. We usually had lots of young unbroken horses or could get our hands on some quickly if the need and a horse breaker showed up. This man showed up at the back door late in the evening and asked for the horse breaking job. He said that he and his girlfriend had been living in an old Pontiac car for over a year and really needed work. We gave him some food and pointed him to an empty house where he and company could move in. I told him to show up at the barn in the morning and we would show him what was expected. First thing the next morning the cowboys brought the unbroken horses in and were anxious to see just what would happen. The young nan started with the first horse that wasn’t even halter broken and quite an audience arrived. He was starting out real good and it was apparent that he had been around this type of horses. After a couple of hours the audience dissipated but I stayed for a while to watch. About this time his girlfriend showed up out in the corral. I hadn’t seen her before but she was dressed in spike heels, a leather mini-skirt, and what my wife called a halter top. She had quite a time negotiating the corral in the springtime in those shoes. She came over to me and wanted a cigarette. I was not a smoker so I told her to ask around. She told me that she had to have one right now and wanted to know where she could buy some. I told her that there was a small store on the Indian reservation about an hour to the north and that I would draw her a map of how to get there. I also told her that we could order some with next weeks’ groceries but that would be the soonest. She kind of went into a small nicotine fit and mumbled as she walked off. I told her that some of the cowboys might have some rollins if that would help. It was about noon then and we broke for lunch. Right at one the young man came to the door and said that they just had to get closer to cigarettes even if it meant living in that car. I shook my head over that for several days. Others came and went with just about the same haste and it took me a long time to figure out just what was happening. When I would send a new man to the barn to get acquainted and get some horses assigned the Indian riders would tell the new man all about how very dangerous it was working there since you probably would be chased by a grizzly bear nearly every day. They also relayed stories of having a big foot jump right on the horse behind them. Many times the wide eyed new man would hasten back to his house pack and leave. Most never gave a reason for the sudden decision and I had to figure it out. Only later when a somewhat veteran cowboy fired right back at the Indians that he wrestled grizzlies and had a girlfriend that looked like a Bigfoot did it become clear what was happening. The other men who had left must not have wanted to seem chicken or something. [/QUOTE]
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