Home Ranch by Ralph Moody

Author:Ralph Moody [Moody, Ralph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Westerns
ISBN: 9780803282100
Publisher: UNP - Bison Books
Published: 2013-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

I didn’t have a chance to get the horses away easily on the next run. The moment we turned, Hazel yiped and started them off at a gallop. I didn’t dare let them pick up any more speed, so I hissed before they’d gone four lengths. Hazel shot forward in her saddle, doubled over the horn, and clutched Pinto’s neck. I didn’t go quite that far, but banged hard against my saddle pommel.

When Hazel straightened up, she was yawping for breath, but as soon as she caught it, she lit into me like a wildcat. “You cheater! You cheater!” she shrieked. “You hissed when I wasn’t ready! And you done it a-purpose! You done it tryin’ to make me scairt to learn the trick!”

“No, I didn’t either!” I told her. “I did it so you wouldn’t hit that pommel any harder.”

Hazel pinched her lips up again, and sat looking at me as if she couldn’t make up her mind. Then, she said, “Well, anyways, it ain’t fair for you to hiss when I don’t know you’re goin’ to.”

I knew that Hazel would brace herself a little bit, and hit the pommel easier if she knew when the stops were coming, so I said, “All right, you do the hissing. But, at first, you’d better try it at a slow canter.”

We made three or four more runs, with Hazel doing the hissing, but each time she braced herself in the stirrups before she hissed. I knew that if I told her what she was doing she’d get mad, so I watched her near stirrup, and, the instant it tightened, I lifted my reins an inch.

Pinch was trained to stop short on that lifted rein. Before I heard Hazel’s hiss, I felt his rump settle down as he set his legs for the quick stop. We were three lengths back of Hazel when she finally hissed and stopped Pinto.

“You dir—you’re cheatin’ again!” she hollered. “You pulled Pinch up before I hissed.”

“Sure, I did,” I said. “I knew when you were going to do it as well as you did.”

“You did not, neither! You ain’t no mind reader! You’re just a cheater; that’s all!” she jabbered at me.

“All right,” I told her; “let’s try it again.”

The next stop worked just like the one before. I think Hazel was more peeved at herself than at me, but she blazed, “You cheater! You cheater! You ain’t tryin’ to learn me! You’re just tryin’ to make me look silly!”

“No, I’m not,” I said. “As soon as you think about hissing you brace yourself for the stop. All I have to do is watch for you to kick your foot into the stirrup.”

“I didn’t do no such thing!” she snapped. Then she sat, tight-lipped, for a minute, and asked, “How many more tries do you reckon we can get done today?”

“As many as you want,” I said, “but it’s going to be pretty tough on your legs and stomach.”

Hazel wouldn’t stop practicing until long after I thought we should have quit, but she couldn’t help tightening up a little bit every time.

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