Best Horse

[cowwrangler]

my best horse is one i still have that is semi retired,he is 21,fresian/qh cross,1500 lbs,he loves to work cattle,show him once where you want cuts to go and he will take over,when i need a good cattle horse he is the one i take to the ranch rodeos and pennings,one of the funniest things that happened to him was one day we was checking cows and i had a new calf in the pasture and we walked up the check him out ,the momma cow walked away and the newborn got up and was missing his momma,so he comes over to Duke who he thinks is momma and tries to suckle from him,i was thinkking uh,oh we are gonna go for a ride or have a dead calf from being kicked,but he didnt move a muscle,kinda like he knew it was a baby,but then again maybe it was a cheap thrill,lol

 

[Kato]

Abner was my very first horse. He was a bay quarter horse. I used him as lead horse during a summer job giving trail rides at a local resort. At the end of the summer, I scraped together enough cash to buy him.

Actually, I didn't pick him, he picked me. When I went for the job interview, we went out to see the horses, and he walked right up to me and put his head under my arm. This doesn't sound amazing at first, but for the next 26 years he never did that again! This was not an easy horse to catch, to put it mildly.

The reason he was the lead trail horse was because he was just too dangerous to rent out! The fellow who owned him before me raced him at local fairs, and you could tell when you got on him!

Lucky for me, when we were taking a group out, he'd stick to the usual walk trot in all the same places like all good trail horses do. As for going for rides after hours, I can't even count how many times this horse ran off with me. He would actually reach down sideways, grab the side of the curb bit in his mouth, and just go. Being so fit, it would be a mile at least before he would slow down enough to bring back under control. What a wild summer that was! I would get butterflies in my stomach just thinking of getting on him, but being young and indestructable, I was NOT going to back down from my first horse after all the years of waiting to have one.

Over time, I won. By the next spring, he was going nicely in a snaffle, and not long after that we even had some pretty good reining moves perfected. He turned into one of those horses where you just had to think about where to turn and it happened. He was so honest, he'd give you whatever you asked. You really had to watch when you were working cattle though, because he'd see them turn before you did and run right out from under you if you weren't watching. :shock:

He was retired at 24, and pulled back out of retirement for a couple of weeks when he was 26 to help with a big feeder calf breakout we had. He lived to be 31. He still was hard to catch right up until the day before his heart attack.

 

[kaylatitshaw1991]

my best horse was red i had him for 3 years , he was a 14 year old thoroughbred. he was killed a few moths ago, there is a artical about it on here.
he was the first horse i ever owned and the second horse i ever road.

 

[rainie]

Jim, big black heinz 57 gelding.Lost him in November at the age of 29. Thinking heart attack. Excellent at anything to do with cattle. From catching and treating calves to bringing down bulls and pulling them into a trailer.Good withers and good footed. Could treat yearlings all day with loose cinches because he had such good withers.Always knew where his back feet were placed under you. Only time he went down with me was when he hit an old badger hole that was grown over with grass while going after a footrot cow. Had all 1400 pounds of him push me into the prairie. Got him as a wedding present . Very green broke.Never spent 2 seconds with him inside the corral while training him. It was always out in the wide open while doing something with cattle. Could turn so hard he actually ripped apart my groin while going after a month old calf one summer. Always had his feet under him, even on wet slick grass.Remember roping off him all day with just a halter and lead shank tied to both sides of his halter because I forgot his bridle.God help you if you missed a loop, or 2 , but you better have it done by the 3rd loop or he would get downright cranky and his ears would be flat back. He just tried so hard every time. Hope I gave him a good life. He actually got a lot of time off when he got older as I prefer to ride colts over a wellbroke horse. I just used him for more serious stuff like treating bulls. I think he taught my kids more about moving cattle than I could. If something started to wander out of the bunch he'd shake his head a little at them.The cows learnt what this meant after a while, or he'd teach them in a hurry.Missed his "good morning" whinny every morning during the winter when walking by the horse pen. He'd whinny at you and then go back to eating hay. Just him, none of the other horses did this. Yep, we were buds and I feel very fortunate to having known him.

 

[CattleArmy]

If asked this question 7 years ago I'd have said my favorite horse is a tall sorrel horse that took me through high school, saw thousands of cattle down an AI chute, and safely carried me around while expecting my first child. However, now I'd have to say it's a dun gelding Peppy San bred that takes care of the two most important people in my life both under 5 feet tall. He is the horse that patiently walks a tad slower so little ones can lead him, stands still as a statue while other horses shy at such nonsense as a cat jumping out of the trash cans, and just keeps walking while everyone else runs after cows getting away. He is the horse that I entrust and can breathe while two little ones I love more then anything else are on and loose on. He is the horse that has shown me really they can ride pastures and be ok not being led. He is the horse that has shown me that sometimes to let them grow you have to let go. He is the horse that carries my most presious cargo. That is my all time favorite horse.

 

[azcowpuncher]

The best horse i ever owned was blind in one eye big stout do anything you ask and then some , you could run and catch anything on him and he would hold the rope no matter how much he was out weighed . Run over rock piles and brush in rough country and make it feel like your lopin in the arena never took a foul step and never bucked no matter what kind of tangled up mess you were in , he would hump up and buck in the mornings no matter what that was to be expected . One spring day i was day workin for a little ranch here in az when i pulled out to catch a cow that was runnin off and it was rocky and very rough and he didnt stumble but stepped kind of wrong and when i got that cow held up and stoped i got off him cause he was sweatin more than usual and his front leg was broke damn near off , i have yet to this day see a horse with that much heart to run witha broken leg like that and even after he stepped funny like that i never had to spur him up he just kept runnin till we got around that cow. some folks might not belive that , hell i didnt at first but you come to az you just ask any ranch cowboy that has been around az for very long and ask them about Popeye on the hat ranch . I aint a crying man but that damn sure brings tears to my eyes when i think about that old horse .

 

[Jerry H]

i have been very lucky and have alot of horses that i liked
but if i had to pick one it would be a blue roan geld that my uncle gave me as a wedding present
he was a weanling "and the only horse i have ever raised of my own"
by a double bred hancock stud and out of a daughter of doc's shug
i started him and until i was forced to sell him no one else ever laid a leg over him
he was not eat up with speed but he could run right now and get in the spot where you could rope quik
he would watch a cow and could read them and be a step ahead of them with every move
i took him to the tem roping pen when he was 3 and won lot's of money on him there
when he was 4 i started tripping on him but he didn't do well behind a long score
but he was great at it also on a short score
i picked up bronc's on him also that year
he'd try to pitch every time i got on him but i never let him get good at so it was just one of things he did and we just went on with the rest of the day
i had named him "bud" after my grandad
as he said out of all the colts my uncle had that year he was the best
as far as i know the fella that i sold him to still has him and he is retired now
wow what memories this story brings back for me
until later
jerry