{"id":17945,"date":"2022-05-18T00:40:56","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T00:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=17945"},"modified":"2022-05-17T19:41:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T19:41:41","slug":"the-buckin-dapple-gray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/18\/the-buckin-dapple-gray\/","title":{"rendered":"The Buckin\u2019 Dapple Gray"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Bryce Angell – The outdoors has always been a large part of my life. My father was an outfitter and guide for 35 years and I was there to shoe and care for the horses and help him do the cooking. We took many great trips into the Yellowstone area. Even now that I\u2019m older, we still ride into the Tetons, Yellowstone and surrounding areas. My poems are mostly of personal experience. I am now retired and enjoying life to the fullest. I plan to do more riding and writing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My father pointed to the corral. \u201cYou see that dapple gray? I\u2019d like it if you\u2019d put a saddle on his back today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dapple gray sure weren\u2019t a looker. Horse face rings a bell. He\u2019d never had a curry comb as far as I could tell.<\/p>\n

And the look that he was giving me was more than just a stare. His cold, black devil eyes were warning, \u201cCowboy, you beware.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ain\u2019t the first to take a chance so go ahead and try. You throw a saddle on my back, and you\u2019ll be flying high.\u201d<\/p>\n

I queried. \u201cWhere\u2019d you get the horse? He\u2019s ugly as can be. Has he ever worn a saddle? And if no, he\u2019s not for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

My father said, \u201cI\u2019m not too sure, but just you never mind. I\u2019ve got a feeling \u2018bout this horse. I\u2019d say he\u2019s one good find!\u201d<\/p>\n

I slipped on his old hackamore with reins tied in a knot. The first part came too easy. But for sure I had him caught.<\/p>\n

I brushed him down then placed a saddle pad upon his back. His eyes were getting bigger. He was planning his attack.<\/p>\n

I put the saddle on the pad and moved it up a bit. Then pulled the cinch up to his gut. That\u2019s when he threw a fit!<\/p>\n

He jumped straight up, dang near six feet, then came down buckin\u2019 strong.\u00a0 <\/span>I never knew an ornery cuss could kick and buck so long.<\/p>\n

The fightin\u2019, stinkin\u2019 piece of crowbait paused to look around.\u00a0 <\/span>Then jumped back into buckin\u2019. He was sure enough Hellbound.<\/p>\n

He finally stopped and stared at me, still snortin\u2019, blowin\u2019 snot. I reached and pulled the saddle off. Another lesson taught.<\/p>\n

I asked my father, \u201cWhat\u2019d you pay?\u201d He said, \u201cI got him free.\u201d I said, \u201cFor him that\u2019s still too much if it were up to me!\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cI knew that horse was trouble. Now he\u2019s proved me right. Too bad he\u2019s not a keeper. He sure put up one good fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

I guess I kind of chuckled \u2018bout my father\u2019s change of heart. He usually had good horse sense but was wrong right from the start.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m not so sure what happed to the ornery dapple gray. Do horses buck in Hades? Bet that\u2019s where he went to stay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My father pointed to the corral. \u201cYou see that dapple gray? I\u2019d like it if you\u2019d put a saddle on his back today.\u201d The dapple gray sure weren\u2019t a looker. Horse face rings a bell. He\u2019d never had a curry comb as far as I could tell. And the look that he was giving me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-cowboy-poetry","7":"category-commentary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17946,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17945\/revisions\/17946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}