"I had a horse that would trip over a piece of paper on a paved road but he never fell."
The all day horse needed a firm hand though and once when I loaned him to a guy, 10 minutes later the guy was back at the start where he jumped off and tied the horse to my trailer. "Chester" always liked to try out a strange rider to see what he could get away with and apparently he tried too hard for that guy.
Chester knew me and after we got used to each other, he really wouldn't try me but I could never really relax in the saddle with him because I could never be sure he wouldn't get a wild hair up his a$$! He was a strong horse though, I could never wear him out. My other horse (that I bought from Bill McCready for $500.00 iirc) was a real sweetheart but he was a half day horse if there ever was one. And he was always tired by that last half hour. And you couldn't keep weight on him. He'd plump up a little in the early summer on the new grass but he'd get skinny as soon as you started working dogs. He had a smooth fast run walk so I loved to ride him.
I tried to never sell a good horse or a good dog, it was too hard to get a real good one. If I did sell a dog, if he went out of the trainer's string, I would split the $$ with him. Gene Uhlman came to me once, someone offered him big money for Countercharge and he wanted me to sell him. Charge ended up with over 100 wins so of course I wouldn't sell him as he was only 5 years old at that time and probably had 50 or so wins. I told Gene that I'd sell him when he was 9 years old but not before! Of course by then Gene had a heart attack and had stopped training, Charge was retired and I had switched to George Tracy. Time marches on! (God, that was a long time ago! As some politician once said, "I've lived too long. My old friends are all dead and my old enemies are now my friends!") Of course, not all my old friends are dead but Gerald and Roland and Gene and Skip Wood a few others are. And hopefully I never really had any enemies! I always liked everyone associated with field trials - I was in it to have fun, not to make enemies. Although I will admit that there were a few who tried my patience every once in a while, mostly by beating me!
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