I’ve been ache’n to do some stories about the good ol’ days here lately. Here’s a story from the my minds archives. The details are a bit foggy so I’m just gonna fill in as I remember it.
I would like to say I was a junior in senior in high school but I might have been a freshman or sophomore in college. I makes no difference….just you’d hope that I’d be getting wiser with age & this is clearly a foolish story. : )
It was a warm afternoon at the Hoggan Ranch. The neighbor boy wanted to come over & ride a pony we call Chocolate Chip. He was a tiny lil chocolate colored pony with a thick stocky lil body.
Now we are going to have to back track in time quite a few years to give you a little history on this blessed lil animal. Back when Eric, Rita, & I were all real little….Rita had asked for a minature pony for Christmas from Santa. Christmas morning, Dad saddle up rode out in the pony bucking horse string & gathered up a baby pony for his baby girl! (Seriously…she asked for a pony & got it!) Well…this miniature renegade wasn’t exactly what Rita had in mind. Actually, it wasn’t at all what she had in mind & she wanted NOTHING to do with it!
Well, that didn’t slow Dad down a bit. Eric & I were put in charge of taking care of his little princesses pony. Breaking it to lead, taking it to water, ect. Wow, I’m pretty sure Chocolate Chip’s name was the only thing sweet about him! This was one of the most stubborn & miserable creatures I’d ever been in contact with!. I remember Eric & I both getting drug behind on the lead rope as the pony would run away with us. One time we were just in the corral & he ran off……dragging us behind….until about the 3rd frozen pile of horse poop knocked loose our grib of the lead rope! I didn’t care for this pony or the spoiled lil’ sister that had wished this lil’ devil on us!
Eventually, with time Chocolate Chip was broke to lead, ride, & all that jazz. He was a spoiled little pony that wasn’t rode enough & knew good & well when he could buffalo a kid. That brings us to our present story. The neighbor kid often came over to ride Chocolate Chip when he was older. It was a nice afternoon. We got the horses in & caught the pony. 1st putting him in the round corral to get him warmed up. Well, our round pen is about the size of 3 traditional round pens & if a horse wants to be naughty….it sure has enough room to be! Chocolate Chip was letting that spoiled little pony personality shine thru! I decided to even up the playing fields & so we moved the warming up process to the alley that was considerably smaller. The neighbor boy & Chocolate Chip were finally starting to see eye. When it came time to go to outside, 1st chance that rotten little pony got …it was misbehaving!
I’d had all I could take of this rotten lil’ pony cheating this little kid so I decided I would “tune up” on him. (This is where the music begins that indicates that something real bad is about to happen) Picture, this stocky, thick necked, hardheaded….lil’ Pony…..complete with a little saddle……as I climb aboard. (I’m somewehere between the age of 17 & 21…….CLEARLY past the stage of riding the little saddle)
Here we go! Chocolate Chip has been wanting to run off so I let him. Certainly I can ride this rotten little pony as fast as he can run so when he gets mad & wants to run I just whip him & ask for more speed. (Thinking I will air him out a lil’ so he is paying attention & will listen when the boy gets back on) He go tearing thru the yard! He doesn’t know what to think about being spanked, especially when no one is pulling on his head to stop. He is at a dead run! Little pony legs in full speed! He runs right up to the edge of the barbed wire fence when he comes to a screatching stop! The gate butts up against a long feed manger so I turn him back on the fence (manger). He is mad & takes off running again! I spank him again & think to myself again….I can ride you as fast as you can run! (This thought was made thinking that the manger was a solid object to run down, similar to a fence & the large pole fence at the end certainly was better to stop at than the wire one we’d just about run thru. The odds where in my favor for teaching him a lesson!
The events that were about to take place I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams! We are running full bore down the manger! There were some boards missing from the old mangers feed bunch. Chocolate Chip saw this as the perfect opportunity to escape & before I knew what was happening………WHAM! He DIVES off into the manger! He fits thru the slats but the rest of us doesn’t! The horn on the saddle catches on the top of the manger slat! I am stuck for a brief second in time, pinned in the saddle by the horn & the manger that this devil pony is trying to take me through! CRACK! BOOM! BANG! CRASH! These I imagine are the sounds echoing thru the silence as finally 8 manger slats break loose! I get swiped off the saddle backwards & land flat on my back on the packed Hamer clay with 4 slats of manger laying on the ground beside me in both directions! I ripped half the manger out! To this day if you go to my Dad’s place, you will still see panels filling in the holes in the manger.
I guess, the rest time I decide I can ride a pony as fast as he can run……I’ll think twice about if thereare any holes he can escape thru!
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