Yottey,
Howdy, I trap on foot right out my back door
and hardly ever use a vehicle
but I too remember the 'old days' when my mule
{old Red} and I would run the Coyote line together.
She loved it and I did too.
A 4 wheeler is impracticle because of creeks and fences everywhere
but Red can jump fences like 'Evil Knevel' !
She is a 'coon hunting saddle mule'
and even thought we both are getting up in age
we both have a few years left in us.
However the best use for old Red is Coyotes in the open fields
rather than the coon line down in the deep woods.
It is easier to just 'tie her up' and walk the coon sets.
{She doesn't mind}
Ya'll, I wrote a story about riding my mare 'Sugarmay'
on the trapline one day a long time ago.
Sugar is still with us and so is Red but Dollymay died.
My disability judge told me he loved the story so much
that I should write all my old stories down.
And so I did.
If it is alright with the others I will just post the
'Wreck of the Sugarmay'
The wreck of the Sugar May
As told to Judge Holland disability judge
Judge Holland: Jack tell me about your horses.
Me: Well Dolly May is the boss horse.
She is the smartest and the best gated of all of them.
She is a brown mare, about 15 hands.
Dolly May is a perfectly well gated saddle mare.
Sitting on Dolly is as comfortable as sitting at home on your own couch
whether she is walking, trotting, galloping, or at a dead run.
Dolly May is not friendly though.
She is haughty, surly, aloof even.
She is as I said the boss horse.
Yet I have never fallen off Dolly.
She is very smart and too smart for that.
Dolly is brown, and I say brown because a horse can not have
even one brown hair and still be called black.
And Dolly has a few brown hairs so even though she looks black
out in the pasture, she is technically brown,
we’ll call her light black.
Judge: “light black!”
Now the other mare is Sugar May, uh no relation. {laugh}
“Well I’ve had a May series Sugar May and Dolly May are horses, Sue May, and Katy May were hounds,
I have also had a Belle series,
I looked down and kind of got misty,
Bonnie Belle was a beautiful hound,
Her broken leg was just healed, from falling off her dog house
when she was a puppy.
She was shot by the same people who killed me.”
“Gut shot, I found her three days later, a crawling pile of maggots,
she was still sitting up but her head was down and she was dead.” Sugar May is 15 hands…
Jack they are kind of small for you. Well sir, if they were any taller I couldn’t get on them
as I ride bareback and hardly ever use a saddle.
Saddles are expensive hard and cold,
I would lots rather have a nice cheap,
soft and warm horse to sit on
especially in the winter.
OK go on.
Yes sir, Sugar May is a Tobiano paint, meaning more then 50% white. Long tail that comes all the way down to the ground.
Long mane that I have to trim or it gets in her eyes.
So they look just like bangs.
She is also a good horse but not well gated like Dolly May.
Sugar May walks and gallops well but riding her at a trot
will beat you to death.
She is close coupled and heavier than Dolly.
Sugar Mays personality is the opposite of Dolly’s
in that Sugar is friendly as she can be!
She is so sweet that lots of times when Marci
{my girl friend}
has her two six year old nieces over,
and they love petting the horses and feeding them cookies.
I have let Sugar in the den just saying don’t stand behind her
or where she cannot see you.
And they loved it and Sugar does too.
Sugar would stand in the den on the carpet and eat cookies
and be petted and made a fuss over all day if I would let her.
However Sugar May is not real smart.
She is a good horse of course and I would ride her anywhere.
But between her and Dolly I would say Sugar is, basically,
not real smart.
I have fallen off of Sugar May in some famous wrecks!
Judge: “Tell us about one of the wrecks, Jack.”
Once we were riding my trap line Sugar and I
back in 86-87 or so.
Usually I ride Red my mule,
but this morning Sugar wanted to go.
Sugar had wanted to run all morning.
The weather was cool and she wanted to run.
I would tell her,
“Sugar we are in the woods and there are trees everywhere
and we can’t run back in here. Slow down!”
All morning I had to rein her in as she was really frisky as if to say:
“I can be every bit as good of a trap line horse as Red!”
“I’ll show you.”
Slow down Sugar! Please.
Well we ran the line and were done
and were on top on the highest hill around,
at the end of the line facing north and resting
and letting Sugar cool off before the walk home.
We could see trucks over to the west on IH 35
going north and south,
and trucks over to the east on IH 45
as the leaves were all down it being winter.
We could also see a perfect view of the Dallas skyline
the weather was cool and clear, and it was a fine day.
I said “Sugar May!
“And her ears turned back towards me as if to say
“Yes boss”
I said, “Do you want to run?”
“And she said,
“ Well yes as a matter of fact I do!” My lawyer laughed and
The judge’s secretary said Jack wait!
How did she say that?
“It was basically a rhetorical question,”
“She had been saying that all morning,
I knew she wanted to run,
now pay attention please.”
Judge Holland had caught it too being a horseman himself,
and smiled.
Judge Holland told his secretary.
“He’s right,
Sugar had been saying all morning that she wanted to run.”
How?
“By wanting to run!
He just said that he had been reining her in all morning!
Now pay attention!”
“Jack, go on.”
“Sugar May do you want to run and she said
“yes, lets go”
so… I screamed!
Haaaahhh!!
And off we went!
Down the big hill towards the pond and the trail home.
We were going all out,
Sugar was going to show me how good of a runner she was!
We ran down the hill and over these terraces
built in the early twentieth century to control erosion.
We were really going,
and as I usually do before we hit the woods,
I checked the bridal.
About then I realized that I had put Red’s bridal on Sugar
which would not have been a problem if we were walking
but now that we were running fast
and were about to hit the woods
was a big problem.
The bridal on a horse when you pull back on the reins
tightens a chain that hangs down under the horse’s chin.
This chain in turn tightens on their lower lip,
and this has the effect like picking up a cat by the back of the neck, it gets their attention.
Well Red has a big head being a mule!
Sugars bridle chain was so loose that I knew,
I had no control over her whatsoever!
And was considering whether to jump now
that we were not in the woods yet,
or to try and slow her down,
which I did not consider for long
as it would have ruined the best run we had had in a long time
and for no purpose because Sugar was not going to stop.
Or just enjoy it!
Jump or enjoy it?
Looking down at the ground rushing past I decided to just let her run.
So it was good I did not have a saddle on.
{I did have a saddle pad without stirrups}
We went under some big pecan limbs that were so low
if I could not have laid right down on her back
my head off to the side and actually below her back.
I would have been knocked off for sure.
Lots of times we would be crossing the same area during rainy weather
when the whole area we had just crossed was under water,
I remember having Sugar May swim!
Swim, where I lie down on her back and holding on to her mane
and let her actually swim across to the damn.
She knows where we are going.
But then it is not so easy to find the trail,
it does not look the same,
Sugar would go to the right and try to climb up,
then back to the left
and scramble around and getting her footing finally get up on the damn.
This day however it was dry and we crossed the old dry pond
and pounded up the damn like she was secretariat,
across the damn and just as we were almost to the trail down the other side through the old pecan orchard and up the road home,
she took a hard 90 degree left turn. And this time she did not tell me anything!
Just one second she was there and the next she was going hard left
and that put a spin on me so I was flying through the air backwards!
Time sort of slowed down.
And I thought I was going to die.
Sugar was still really going and I remember thinking,
“Sugar, why are you going that way?
What can you be thinking?
We have never gone that way!
I was wondering what Sugar May could possibly have been thinking.
All I could hear from Sugar May was fading hoof beats and bustin brush!
Sugar was really going!
“Fading hoofbeats and bustin brush!
J. Frank Dobie”
the judge said to his secretary.
I was wondering what would happen
when I hit whatever I was going to hit.
If I hit a tree with my head it would crush my skull and kill me outright!
And if I did not hit it solid but sort of a off center glancing blow!
It would not kill me outright but that would be worse
as I probably would be paralyzed or brain dead.
I would lay out in the rain and cold with no food or water
for a week or two before anyone found me if they ever did.
The Judges secretary said
Jack” wait, what was happening
while all this you are telling us about now
was going on”
“ I was flying through the air!”
All this time!
“Yes! I said that time stood still now please,
pay attention and don’t interrupt,
really I’ll forget what I’m talking about.
Really, I will completely loose my train of thought,
please don’t interrupt.”
“Anyway, it was a beautiful January day
out on the trap line,
I was flying through the air backwards,
time was on hold, so to speak.
{as it were}
Time was on hold!
Judge Holland said with great mirth.
And about this time a broken arm or leg was looking good,
it really was!
In fact,
If God would have come down right then with his clipboard,
and said:
Ok “Jack, broken leg or arm but no worse, sign on the line.”
I would have signed it in a second,
with no hesitation whatsoever!
I would have gone for that one.” The Judge smiles.
About that time however I hit the ground!
Boom!
Judge: “Jack did it knock you out?
“I don’t think so.
Secretary: well you would have known if it had knocked you out!
Well not really,
I was in the hospital and woke up from my motorcycle wreck
and realized that I was in the hospital but I thought to myself:
“I was in a bad motorcycle wreck last night.”
But it was not last night but 5 weeks before!
When one is knocked out one doesn’t know anything.
Before the motorcycle wreck, and asked the same question, I would have said no,
I was not knocked out and that is probably true
but now I realize
if I was knocked out at the time I wouldn’t know it now.”
Judge, ok, Jack go on.
I hit the ground hard and it knocked the breath out of me!
The first and most important thing to me was air!
As I was breathing hard anyway,
so in a minute I got my breath back.
I got some air in my lungs
and then began to take stock of what had happened.
I had not hit a tree, but had hit the ground on the downhill slope,
which was good.
I realized that my feet were higher than my head,
I was hanging in the vines.
And as I pulled myself out of the briars and stood up and looked around,
I saw that I had landed in the biggest thicket of sticker vine, saw briars.”
I looked at the Judge and went on in my story teller tone of voice,
with a serious look in my eye,
“THAT ANY MAN EVER SAW!”
This got a laugh from the Judge!
“ that any man ever saw indeed!”
*{the Yearling}”
I tore my way out of all the vines as I was really in them!
and limped towards home,
I started walking towards home,
not worrying about the gates now that I was on foot.
I limped through the woods,
and came out at a place where I could see Sugar May
standing on one side of water mill road,
her blue saddle pad hanging down on her belly.
And Dolly May and Red standing on the other side of the road
on my land keeping her company.
I came out of the woods limping and did not say anything. Sugar turned and looked at me as if to say,”
"Where have you been?” And as I made the appearance to the judge of lifting my sleeve
with my right hand and looking at my watch
and then holding my hands out palms up, “
“I thought we were going riding?”
This got another comment from the judge’s secretary
about that talking horse
but I don’t remember it.
I just limped over got Sugars bridle and halter in my hand
and limped home down the hill to the gate
we were supposed to come through anyway,
and home.
I did not yell at her or even hit her.
I was not really even mad.
That’s just Sugar May.
And the judge laughed and said to his secretary
something about what a perfect understanding
of horse psychology that was.
That’s going in the book!
And how pintos are just that way!
“I have owned pintos!”
That’s exactly the way they are.
That’s pintos and paints!
He said to her with a big smile,
his eyes wide like saucers and looking right at me.
Jack, the Judge said,
What about your mule?
Well sir old Red is a red appaloosa jenny mule.
She is about 14 hands and a perfectly trained coon hunting saddle mule!
Perfectly trained when I bought her!
And I paid more for Red $750.00,
than both other horses put together.
Jack why do you have two horses besides your mule,
you can only ride one at a time?
“Well, A. L. Brimer who sold me Red said that old Red
won’t stay around if you don’t have any other horses.
She will jump the fence and go till she finds a horse,
or even a donkey.
And stay there as she gets lonesome
and won’t stay in a fence by herself.
So I bought the other two horses as pets for Red.
“She has carried a rider and nine! Coon,
out of the Sabine river bottoms
in one night!
She will automatically turn without being told
and ride to the sound of barking hounds.
I would jump on old Red tomorrow,
and ride up to Denver!
Bareback, no problem.
Jack, the judge asked, how long would that take?
800 miles,
...400 hours riding time,
umm two months.
The Judge laughed out loud.
Two months!
To go to Denver!
Two months ha ha
“I could drive up to Denver after lunch!
Judge Holland and his secretary carried on so long laughing
and saying thing’s like I could walk to Denver in two months myself!
I said after listening to them for a few minutes,
“Well if you are in a big hurry, take a bus!”
This brought on another fit of laughing,
and even the judge’s secretary loved that one!
Judge, “ A bus a bus!
How long would that take!
Three days?”
Me: “Well that’s about right,
“But it’s better than two months!”
Why don’t you take your car!
“ If I wanted to go to Denver I would take my truck,
it would be faster and cheaper.
I would need a thousand dollars just for food if I rode Red,
as it is a long way!
But if I wanted to ride Red to Denver she would make it!
That was the point I think.”
I got the disability.
Thank you
J. Winters VonKnife
http://jacksknifeshop.blogspot.com/ http://jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/ 9-03
