Chapter 25

When Denac, Lanita, and I arrived at the horse and donkey ranch is was apparent that the donkeys were not dissatisfied with their new accommodations. There were fourteen of them, and six were following the guys around while the other eight were leaning against the pen's fence to visit with the large cashda in it.

Jortah came over as we dismounted.

"What did you call the small ones? They don't act a bit like the larger ones do."

"They are donkeys, and they are usually a little curious when they don't feel threatened," I said.

"Well they don't seem to feel threatened at all then. Most of them tried to help us eat our breakfast. We actually had to shoo them away, and some just wouldn't go," he said.

The smallest of the bunch proved his point for him then. It was an adult male but barely larger than a Great Dane. It came directly up to Lanita, to introduce himself I guess.

Lanita was not put off by its forwardness, and soon it was rubbing its head against her as she petted over most of it. Finally she must have remembered what I'd told her.

"I want this one Daddy. I'm going to name him Nosey," she said.

"It looks like a very good name for him. Do you want me to put a halter on him so you can teach him to follow when you lead?"

"Not just yet. I think he will follow me anyway. He seems to like me," she said, and grinned.

"Have it your way then. Nosey is your donkey."

Nosey took this opportunity to show us all what kind of sounds donkeys made. He gave us several lusty Hee Haws and Lanita, though surprised at first, loved it. She was laughing along with him in seconds and the rest of us joined in. When Lanita started walking away from him, he fell right in step beside her, heeling almost as well as any dog I'd ever seen.

I told one of the guys to keep an eye on Lanita and Nosey and then turned my attention to the new arrivals. There were even more than I'd thought.

As I mentioned, fourteen of them were donkeys, three males and eleven females. One was a large male, probably fourteen hands or better, one was medium sized at around eleven hands, and then there was Nosey. He was the runt of the litter and couldn't be much over nine hands, if that. Most of the females were between ten and twelve hands. I could tell right away I'd end up with some big mules if that large male would cooperate.

The horses in this bunch looked to be quarter horses, though they couldn't actually claim to be, since the AQHA somehow owned the term. No matter, they couldn't sue us here and if these weren't quarter horses there ain't a cow in Saltillo.

There were two mature stallions among the band of sixty-one horses. One was clearly dominant but he tolerated the other. Of course the other had already learned to keep out of the dominant's vicinity. The lead mare, a big bay, was also easy to spot, since she seemed to be busily herding the others, especially as I walked near them.

As I approached, the dominant stallion headed my way. He wasn't being especially aggressive, just doing his job. He interposed himself between the herd and me while the lead mare bunched them and moved them further from me. I noticed that the other stallion took up what you might think of as a secondary defensive position.

This action was normal, since they knew by now that they couldn't hope to flee and get away. It wasn't even a bother, since all I wanted to do was get a feel for what we had.

Along with the stallions were twelve yearlings, sixteen foals, and thirty-three mature mares. They all seemed to be in good health and were remarkably large for quarter horses, all of the mature ones seeming to be at least fifteen hands. The stallions were larger, and the dominant one was nearly sixteen hands.

They were all well muscled too and I knew they were a major asset. Even though quarter horses had poor working shoulders for harness work, they could still drag a travois if necessary and they could certainly carry riders, hell, that's what they were for. I was anxious to get a halter on the dominant stallion.

That was going to be a trick though. We still had the larger models in the pen to deal with and I didn't intend to release them to try getting the new arrivals in process. Besides, there were too damned many of the new ones to put in the pen, especially before the others were out of it.

The smart thing was to be patient, finish with the Clydesdales and let the Quarter Horses become more accustomed to us. No one told you I was smart though.

"Denac, I think that these are going to act a little more like I'm used to," I said.

"What do you mean?"

"We're going to have to earn rides on their backs, with hard work," I said.

"How can we do that?"

"I think your part is going to be holding on to a rope. My part is going to be roping one for you to hold onto.

"First thing, I need to get two of the lariats; then I'll try to rope the one that's keeping between us and the others. If I can get a loop on him I'll hand you that rope as I try to get the other on him while you're hanging on and trying to slow him down," I said.

"Are you sure this is the normal way to do it?" he asked, and I couldn't lie.

"No, it isn't. The normal way to rope a wild cashda is from the back of another cashda," I said.

"Then why don't you do it from Buster or Candace?" he asked, logically.

"Because the normal way also includes a saddle for the roper to sit on. A saddle is a leather seat that has a band going all the way around the back and chest of the horse you are riding on to rope from. Without the saddle, if I rope him he will just drag me off," I said.

"I see. Are you sure this is safe, roping from the ground?"

"No, but I hope it is. At any rate, the most we're likely to lose is the rope," I said, explaining.

"Can't we just pick it back up?" he asked.

"Yes, we can, but it will probably be shorter."

"How would it get shorter, just from this roping," he asked.

"If the horse gets loose after we rope it, it will run off. While it is running the rope will still be around his neck and it will drag on the ground behind him as he runs. Sooner or later he will step on the rope with one of his four feet. When he does the rope will tug hard on his head and neck and he will tug back and the rope will probably break," I said, explaining again.

"I see. So I should hold onto the rope if I possibly can, but release it if I feel in danger?" Denac asked.

"Exactly. It is a judgment call on your part. We should go back to camp first though."

"Why should we?" he asked.

"We have left an important piece of equipment there."

"What have we left?" he asked.

"Our new gloves and the lariats. It will be much better if the rope slides out of your gloves than out of your hands. If you don't have your gloves on we will be treating your cut up hands a little later," I said.

"I am very glad that you can plan ahead so well. I can see where the rope sliding through my hands could be painful."

"The way I know so much about it is that I once tried something similar without gloves. I'm not exactly planning ahead, I'm remembering how much it hurt that other time," I said, and damned if he didn't laugh at me.

I spoke to Jortah to let him know what was going on and then called Lanita over to tell her, and asked if she wanted to go. It was horseback riding so of course she wanted to go, but that wasn't all.

"Daddy, can Nosey come with us?" she asked.

"Well, he can't ride with us, there isn't room."

"Daddy, I know that. He can follow us though," she said.

"He might run away if we let him out of the fence."

"I don't think he will. He likes me an awful lot, I can tell," she said.

"Well, he is your donkey and if you want him to follow us we will let him. We can probably catch him again later if he runs away, and you might be right about him staying with us."

The guy who'd been watching Lanita and Nosey gave Denac and then me a leg up and then handed Lanita up to me. He headed to the gate then to let us out and Lanita asked him to please let Nosey out also. He was happy to, and I'm not so sure he was looking forward to Nosey coming back.

The only snag was when we reached the river. Nosey wasn't convinced that he should bail off into the water. He had been trotting along right beside Lanita and I until then, but he balked for a second at the water, but when we rode on in he finally followed, and then Lanita laughed.

"Poor Nosey. No wonder he didn't want to follow us, his feet won't reach the bottom. He has to swim," she said, and laughed some more.

When we reached the other side we turned around to wait for poor Nosey but he made it with no trouble. I should have known what was coming but I didn't think about it. Poor Nosey came up right beside Lanita and then shook his skin all over like a dog shaking off water.

Lanita squealed when the water hit us, but we weren't drenched or anything. She told him "Bad Donkey" but Nosey didn't seem like he felt chastised in the least. He just stood around waiting until we rode on and then he fell right in step.

When we reached the campsite it didn't take five minutes for Nosey to draw a crowd. All the adults came around and looked but the other children were enthralled. I let Lanita down and she went over to them with Nosey following. He was in hog heaven soon since they all wanted to pet him and scratch his ears. I could tell he reveled in the attention.

My three mates were paying attention too and they could barely keep from laughing.