He Rode Tall

Excerpt

The theory, Harry had explained to Joel, was that
the young horses would emulate the calmer behavior of the older,
more mature horse. Joel knew that if he couldn’t bring an older
horse, the next logical step would be to take the three-year-olds
out in pairs, but right now he wanted to get out of the arena and
ride into the wide-open spaces, not worrying about bringing an
extra horse along. Sure, he had been loping the buckskin down
the road for the last thirty days, but the graded, fence-lined road
was pretty tame compared to what Mother Nature might cook
up. He opened the gate to the pasture and led the muscular buckskin
gelding through. After gently shutting the gate behind him
so as not to upset the young horse with too much noise, Joel
swung up into the saddle and the two of them set off into the hills
at a fast walk.
It was a good feeling. Since he had been back on the ranch, Joel
had come to realize that he felt his best whenever he had a saddle
between his legs and reins in his hands. He didn’t really understand
why, but he knew that in a strange sort of way it made him
feel like a real man. And at the same time, Joel realized that it
was a feeling that had been missing from most of his life. The
good news was that now, riding the buckskin into the Hills of
Serenity, Joel was feeling like a man.
The higher Joel and the buckskin gelding climbed the windier
it became. There was a fresh wind blowing in from the west. Joel
hadn’t figured wind into the plan for this excursion nor did he
realize what kind of impact it might have on a horse. Irritated by
the strong wind, the buckskin was getting real jumpy. With the
gelding starting to dance a little too much for comfort under him
and not wanting to have to use too much force on the gentle snaffle
bit, Joel turned the gelding around and headed back to the
barn. To avoid the wind, he found a wild game trail down the side
of a hill that led to the bottom of one of the coulees that reached
nearly all of the way back to the homestead. He was thinking that
he should have thought of this route earlier.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0980897955

He Rode Tall

Excerpt

“Well, that may have worked best for Dad. After all, he knew
the value of his horseflesh. For myself, without his knowledge, I
think it would be better if I auctioned them off. That way I would
know I was getting a fair price.”
“But we’re saying we will take them right now. You could stop
riding today. You wouldn’t have to worry about arranging an auction
and promoting it and hoping that people showed up. We
could save you a lot of grief. If I were you, I would play it safe and
take us up on our offer.”
What they didn’t know was that Joel had “played it safe” for
most of his life, and now he just couldn’t afford to “play it safe”
any longer; not if he wanted to be the man that he knew he could
be and should be. The kind of man that he wanted to be.
“Gentlemen, I amnot you,” Joel replied.With a curt “good day,”
Joel turned and headed up to the ranch house for his lunch and
some quiet. As he approached the house, he could tell that the two
visitors were not happy with the treatment they received by the way
that they drove out of the yard. Stepping inside the ranch house,
Joel thought, Rounders are rounders. There may be city rounders
and there may be country rounders, but either way he didn’t want
any part of them. If you don’t shoot straight, Joel just didn’t want to
have anything to do with you.
After a quick bowl of Campbell’s tomato soup seasoned with
two dashes of Tabasco sauce for lunch, Joel decided to pull out
his father’s old briefcase and see what kind of dollars his dad had
been getting for the three-year-olds. He found everything he
needed in one little black book. Written in pencil, his dad had
carefully recorded the name of the horse, the sire, the dam, who
he had sold the horse to, and for what price. Looking over the last
few years, he could see that his dad had seldom sold a horse for
over 3,000 dollars, and if he did, it was never over 4,000 dollars.
Seeing two names repeated year after year, it was easy to spot the
two trainers who had just paid him a visit. They had never paid
over 2500 dollars for a horse. Joel was pleasantly complimented
by the generous offer they had just made him before they left …

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0980897955