Dannyboy--Part 2

By Laura Crum


If you didn’t catch the first part of this story, see “Dannyboy” (March 09).
So, Danny, my quirky horse with the bucking issue, had finally overcome his bronco tendencies under the guidance of my cowboy friend who could ride a horse that bucked. He was ready to compete in the big time as a team roping horse. We were all proud of him. The horse was really talented. He could start hard, run as fast as any horse we knew, he would put a leg in the ground and check and pull a steer as well as any head horse. He was rock solid in the box. He was well broke, would spin and slide well enough that a reiner wouldn’t sneer. He was tough minded, and could make run after run without getting excited. He had every virtue a rope horse needs. And he was a pleasant, kind, cooperative horse to be around. One hundred per cent sound. Though plain-headed, he was well made. He still thought about bucking from time to time, but was easy to talk out of it. My friend had already been offered a lot of money for him. He was seven years old. And then, one morning, I got the call.

“Danny’s hurt. Bad.”

The story was a strange one. Danny was turned out in a large field, and my friend had driven in one evening after dark to feed. The horse was familiar with this, but for some reason, he had come running in and had run right straight at the truck. My friend came to a stop and thought the horse was going to come right through the windshield. But Danny buried up right as he got to the truck and slid half under the bumper, falling down as he tried to get up. He ran off on all four legs and my friend thought he was fine. But the next morning the horse was three legged. (Since then I have heard of other horses that did this; people tell me they are blinded by the headlights and try to run between them.)

We hauled the horse to the best vet I knew, who said that Danny had thoroughly torn up his stifle joint. If he was given sufficient rest (and the vet said the only other horse he knew of who had this injury and recovered, it had taken several years of pasture layoff) he might be ridable. Probably never sound enough to rope on, though.

My cowboy friend wasn’t interested in keeping the horse. It was up to me to decide what to do. I could put him down or keep him myself and give him a chance.

Logic dictated I should put the horse down. Even if he were sound, I wouldn’t have chosen him as my riding horse. I didn’t want one that might buck. And now he might never be sound again. But Danny looked at me with his big kind eyes and I just couldn’t do it. So I kept him

.
I gave the horse his several years of turnout. And he did become riding horse sound. He was still a touch off in his right hind, but the vet said it was just residual arthritis issues. Danny would, mostly, warm up out of this and look completely sound. I let another young cowboy friend of mine heel on him for a couple of summers. Danny did fine, though we had to keep him on Adequan, warm him up extra carefully, and he still had days where he was too sore to use. It was an off and on thing. He was still very fast, cowy, good-minded, a terrific rope horse. Everybody admired him. He was still the nicest horse to be around that you can imagine. He would have done fine as a horse for light riding, but how do you place a horse that can only be ridden lightly because of an injury, but also might buck you off? Because, oh yeah, Danny would still occasionally buck. Whatever form of cinchieness he had, it never really went away. Once in awhile, for no reason we could predict, he’d “catch himself” and start bucking. He didn’t buck that hard any more, and he’d stop if you yelled at him, you didn’t even have to spank him. He never bucked anyone else off, but I still wasn’t game to let inexperienced people ride him. Hell, I wasn’t game to ride him myself. I’m too old and out of shape to want to wonder if/when my horse is going to start bucking.

So, I retired him. He lives in my pasture, is plenty sound enough to run and buck and play, though he isn’t quite 100% sound. He loves attention, loves to be petted, is still a pleasure to be around. Kids walk out in the field and hug him. My little boy loves him. Easy to haul, easy to trim, cooperative about anything you want to do….that’s Danny. Everybody likes him. But every time I look at him I shake my head. What a great horse he could have been. But for bad luck…

Still, Danny had good luck in a way, as the photo below will show. That’s Danny and Gunner (my 29 year old horse) as they look today. Not such a bad life, don’t you think?

I modeled the colt called Danny that my protagonist, Gail McCarthy, starts, in my seventh book, Hayburner(reviewed last week by Janet on her mugwump chronicles blog---and by the way, I highly recommend a trip to that blog today), on the real Danny. So, if anyone wants to read a few more stories about Dannyboy, there’s your chance.

Cheers,
Laura Crum


PS—For those who are interested, I finished my 11th mystery this week. The ms is printed and will go off to the editor tomorrow. So, “cheers” is particularly appropriate.