LARRY BAILEY HORSE WORLD

Ranger - my first horse and by far the most important. Why - because after forty five years I’m still seriously hooked on horses. He sent me on a lifes journey on understanding why. Why does the walk feel this way? Why does he not stop? Why does he run away? Why is he afraid of water? Why did he let me shoot off his back at the gallop? Why couldn’t I catch him? And the why’s I’m still answering at every clinic and seminar I teach. I think in the back of my mind, this sounds like a Ranger 100 series of human psychology to me.

I was seven or eight years old when I asked my father, who was a traveling salesman for a heavy equipment business, if I could have a horse. I had a stick horse stable in my grandfather’s garage for a number of years before my parents were able to purchase a house with a small acreage outside of town. My father said if I could afford a horse and care for it I could have one. I knew the horse I wanted (as most of us do). He was a golden palomino with four matching socks just like Roy Rogers’ horse Trigger. A lady down the river had him and I had never seen him being ridden or really cared for.Roy Rodgers and Trigger!

I’ve looked back on this so many times as an example of all the things you can do wrong on your first purchase. Yet Ranger teaches me today. I went down to see Ranger on my bicycle and on the way borrowed an apple from a neighbor's tree. We (Ranger and I) shared the apple and I explained to him how I would purchase him and what we would do after that. I told him that I would form a small business mowing lawns and that I would hire the neighbor kids to help me and that I would get 25¢ from each dollar that they would earn. I explained that I didn’t know how much he would cost but I was sure that I could get it done in thirty days. The apple was about gone and Ranger didn’t seem interested in becoming an Olympic dressage horse, race horse, mountain horse or local show horse but I was sure excited about it all.

I went home to see my neighbor and explained how I was going to mow and care for his lawn but I needed more lawns so I could buy a horse. Mr. and Mrs. Maxey helped get more lawns and also winter contracts shoveling snow. I soon had the neighbor boys mowing and I was taking 25¢ per hour of their wages. I rode my bike down and met the lady who had Ranger and told her that my father said I could have a horse if I could afford one. I told her that I talked this over with Ranger and had started a lawn business and was making money.

Mr. Maxey talked with another one of my mentors, Dr. Furese, and soon had another large mowing job. Within a couple of of weeks I rode my bike down to the lady’s house and asked her the horrible question ̶ what was Ranger’s price? She said $75.00 and she would throw in some tack and what she had left in feed. Not understanding the old story “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, I raced home and counted my money. Yes! I had over $100.00, so back I went and sat down with the lady to put together my first horse purchase. Soon I had a horse, halter rope, boots that almost fit, bridle and many bales of hay and a sack of grain.

Now the reality starts to sink in ̶ I didn’t know how to ride a horse and I had no way of moving the feed to my parents house. Well, out comes my red wagon and down the hill I went to fetch my first bale of hay. What once seemed like a short excited ride to Ranger’s house was a long, hard ride with hay in tow.  I spent a long day moving hay into a small shed on my parents property and when my mother got home from work, she saw a very tired child that explained that he had purchased a horse and the hay was in the barn. My mother, who loved horses, didn’t know of the conversation with my father and wanted to make sure of his approval. Yet it was too late because I had a bill of sale. I can’t imagine why a eight year old would need a bill of sale. But now that I think about it, I don’t remember any involvement with my parents in the purchase of Ranger. But now it was time to get Ranger. Even though I had borrowed plenty of apples from my neighbor, catching him was a problem. He didn’t seem to understand that going to my house was a good deal. Or maybe he did understand that going to my house meant a lot of riding and work.

Ranger turned out to be an older horse just as the lady said. I didn’t know that he and God were the same age! It would have been difficult to have had a vet look at him before purchase (if we could have caught him) because you probably couldn’t open his mouth to check his teeth as that was why the lady gave me the bridle, you couldn’t put it on him.

I rode Ranger home and what a ride it was. Me not knowing how to ride was not the problem. Ranger was a master of the universe. He knew of all the ways to return to his old pasture. I think it would have been easier with a bridle but I couldn’t get it into his mouth so I was trying to ride him in his halter. We checked all side roads, trails etc. before arriving at my house. I realized that Ranger knew how to stop and not go forward, he could back up at the speed of sound, he could rear up like the horses in the movies and he was mine.

Once home, I did like my father with our first new car.... I gave him a bath. But not like my fathers car, he didn’t stand still. In fact he moved faster with water than he did while being ridden. He cleaned up well and his white socks, mane and tail looked like platinum against his golden coat. I turned him out in his pasture and sat down on a bucket with pride. Now I have a horse I can’t catch and hardly ride, what do I do next ?