Cactus

Cactus was one of two horses Dave had when we moved to the ranch in February 1979. I was really curious about these two potential steeds and when spring arrived Dave decided one day to have a ride on Cactus to show me how he went. Now I'm not sure how many times Dave had ridden Cactus previously but probably darned few as Cactus hadn't lived here all that long either and there was a story about the contest between Cactus and the Bull With Horns which ended when Cactus had a punture in his side. Most lesser horses would have died from that puncture but you only had to watch Cactus for a minute or two to realize he was not a lesser horse. As you can see in the photo the two mares who are considerably bigger than him didn't challenge him at the snack box.

Dave finally got a bit past Cactus's clamped teeth and hopped on. Bareback. Out in the big pasture. Not the way we would do it now but there were some details missing in our safety program at the time. Dave liked horses a lot but he really didn't ride a lot. Cactus and Lady had been avoiding big things like cougars hopping on their backs all winter. The whole riding performance didn't last more than 30 seconds on that breezy spring day. Cactus appeared to have a well developed routine. For Level One it was the front end that came up first. Even before a step forward. Then the back end. No leap, just alternating back a forth a couple of times. Dave didn't take this as any kind of a suggestion for him to get off. Perhaps it just wasn't all that bad a ride or perhaps he wanted to impress his new wife. Cactus didn't waste must time moving to Level Two which included leaping. Dave didn't waste much time falling off. I didn't waste much time going back to the gate and getting the truck. A trip to the chiropractor and a few days later Dave was well enough to deliver Cactus to the local horse sale.

We were in need of some ponies for the kids. Cactus was not working out. 

We don't seem to have any good photos of Cactus. He is the one eating out of the box above, I have my hand on his mane in another photo and he is in front of me in the other photo.