My eyes are a getting fuzzy, I don’t see so right pretty good anymore, but today I had my twin grandson’s and I was telling them about a horse my grand pa Jim had, a Tennessee Walker he got from a man in Kentucky. A horse that saved my life, a horse that had as much love as any mother does for her children. More smarts than my uncle who was the President of the College in Laramie. Yes, this here horse was a special one to my grand dad, my dad and to me. So hunker back, pour one and let me tell you a true story, a story about the horse whose picture I still have above my mantle. This story will never make any history books, nor will he be remembered other than by me, my son and so on telling the legacy of this horse. So here it is. Now let me tell you about a horse my granddad Jim brought back from Kentucky, back in mid-Jun 1898 I think it was. Now Grandpa had been raised in West Virginny, he lived in Williamson but a boy from over in Belfry had called his sister, “Low down trash,” because she would not go to the dance with him. Well grand pa Jim, he just goes over to Belfry, finds this boy and whips him good. As Grandpa Jim starts to leave the place, the boy pulls a knife and tries to stab him. Well they said Grandpa Jim had one strong right hand and he hit this boy so hard he broke his neck, snapped his neck and killed him. Now people from West Virginny were looked down on by them folks in Kaintuck and even though it was self-defense, they gave Grandpa Jim fifteen years on the chain gang. After a year or so, he made trusty and when the Cap’n got drunk, Grand pa Jim chained the Cap’n and took his money and his gun. He run, run out of the country and ended up down in Oklahoma Territory. He changed his name, later married, and then moved up to the Wyoming Territory. He worked and his wife worked. One thing about West Virginny boys is they know how to work and if one of them got any brains, they can go places. Well Grand pa Jim, let me just call him Jim, he worked and saved and his wife she found that them cowboys and Army men there at Fort Carlin and Fort Russell liked good home cooking, so he opened a restaurant, and soon he owned a feed store and a coal yard then a lumber mill. He was a real wheeler-dealer. He came by a ranch, a little ranch and in a couple years, he had one of the biggest spreads in the Laramie Valley. All the while Grand ma was still a cooking and running three restaurants. She just sent back for West Virginny girls and taught them to cook grand ma’s way. Well things went well for Grand pa Jim and Grand ma Ellie, but he never liked the thing a hanging over his head about him running from that chain gang. Well he got him a sharp Wyoming Lawyer and they communicated with the Governor of Kentucky. Seems they had railroaded a bunch of West Virginny boys. Well they worked it out that Grand Pa would have to serve sixty days for stealing the Cap’ns gun and money, then the Governor would give him a pardon. Well there was a little grease money thrown in, but what do you expect from Lawyers and Politicians? So he goes back, serves his sixty days, then he is personally handed a pardon. Well Grandpa Jim always liked horses so he was riding back home, said he wanted to see the country as a free man. It seems he had three horses and two pack mules and after he got that pardon, he headed home. He was nearly out of the state long about Paducah when he sees this man a whipping a black horse. He did not like that, so he just goes over and takes the whip form the man. “That horse can’t fight back; you whip me instead of that horse.” Well the man took Jim at his word and lit into him and here grand pa Jim was in his 60s, an old man. He kicked this feller’s butt seven ways from Sunday and the man then invited him to stay for supper. Grand pa Jim said the man told him, “When an old man kicks my butt the way you did, I got to respect you, so stay for supper and that horse is yours.” So the next day Grand pa Jim with his new black horse, a beauty, a Tennessee Walker he was. Grand pa Jim called him “Quess,” because his forehead was blazed with a reverse question mark. He bought three horses from the man, got a bill of sale and headed home. Well that there Black horse, old Quess took a liking to grand pa Jim and as he rode, him and the other horses back to Wyoming. When he got back home, he teamed up with Doc Klatchum, a man who had two degrees, first he was a Vet, and then he got a Medical degree. Shucks folks said the reason he was so good was he treated his patients like horses. Anyhow, they bred those horses he brought back and they had some of the best racehorses in the state. Grand pa Jim and Grand ma Ellie were a loving couple for they had seventeen children. My daddy was the third oldest and the smartest. He took a likening to that Quess and soon that durn horse would not let anybody but Grand pa Jim and my daddy, Seth ride him. In the summer, all the children that were old enough to work, that being six and older, would spend the summer on the ranch, then when school started then all would come into town and spend the winter so they could go to school. See, Grand pa Jim never got to school, he learned to write his name from his mother and then Grand ma Ellie, she taught him to read and write. They swore and vowed that their children would get to go to school and one day one of them would graduate from college. The oldest boy Elbert he was the one who was to go to college, and the second one was a girl, Ruby Dee, she was sent back East to college, a college for girls. Elbert, he went to the new University there in Laramie, eventually becoming a teacher, then a Professor and finally the president of the State’s University. Now it was obvious that Seth, my daddy, was the smart one so he was sort of spoiled. Now when Grand pa Jim got Quess, he was a two years old, and daddy was twelve. Therefore, you might say they grew up together. As I said by the time grand pa Jim had ridden from Eastern Kentucky back to Wyoming, his horses knew him well and Quess who he got around the Paducah area was well broken in. For Jim was a fine horseman and he was a gentle man with animals and anything dumb. One time a man was a teasing a feller who was not so right pretty smart who ran errands. Grand Pa Jim put the feller in the hospital for picking on someone who could not defend themselves. Now let me tell you a few stories about Seth, my dad, and his Black horse, Quess. It seems that after they became well off grand pa Jim bought a place about ten miles out of town. In town, he kept two riding horses and a team for the buggy. So poppa would spend all his time out at the place. He convinced his daddy to let him stay out there with the ranch hand and his wife and ride to and from town to school. Well he convinced his dad that a Tennessee Walker needed to be ridden a lot and if they just stood around their nature was to be balky and not take the saddle real well. Therefore, every morning Poppa would ride into town to school. There were quite a few other boys and girls who lived out of town and they too rode in to school. Boys being boys, soon it was race, “My horse is faster than yours,” bit, which was prevalent among boys. But poppa would hold Quess back and say, he was slow, until he could get other boys to make it worth his while, then he would take them on and whip them, always running just behind his competitor then when he yelled Quess would stretch it out. That way it did not seem he was very fast. Well Poppa built himself a good little nest egg and then word leaked out about Seth Doltsinger’s Black horse and some men wanted to run against him. “Son what is this I hear you racing Quess against your school mates?” Jim asked his son. The boy shirked, but then his pa may not have been a gambler with cards or dice but he surely did gamble with life and everything he owned and did not own in other ways. “Yes sir, Quess is one fast horse so I hold him back and when we are playing I lose by just a little. I get the others to get up a bit of money then I race them, holding Quess back and just before the end I let him out to win by less than a length.” The boy smiled, “He loves it pa, he loves it.” “Ain’t you a little young to be a betting and a racing?” His pa asked. “Pa by the time you were my age what were you doing? Shucks I am having fun, but since I am smarter than most of the others I take their money and they find a simple reason for losing.” He paused then added, “Pa I am only learning the games of life and the ahhh, ah, ins and outs of getting ahead as you say.” The man put his arm around the boy and hugged him. They plotted some strategy. Needless to say, the old man set up a race and cleaned up. Quess was to race in the big race at the Rodeo but the old man was hit by a ricochet fired by Marshall Mans Aimstraight. Grand pa Jim died two days later. My dad, Seth he then took over running grand pa’s businesses. Secretly he trained the horse for the big Rodeo race and to keep people from knowing what he was doing, he dyed another horse black and put the Question mark on it, while he dyed Quess a dull brown and kept Quess of town. He sent his brothers and sister out and around to time the other horses. His mother, Grand ma Ellie would not let Seth have any money to bet on the big race so he pulled a good one. He took Quess, painted him white, painted a saddle white and then dressed in all white, heck like a KKK member, he robbed the Bank messenger who once a week brought the strong box from Laramie to Cheyenne. He learned of this from a classmate, for the boy bragged about his pa driving the buggy with the sacks of grain over the strong box. My daddy, he held up that man and stole the strong box. Riding a white horse dressed all in white. He tied the man up, released his horse and busted a wheel on the buggy. Then he rode over the hill, opened the strongbox and threw the empty box down a ravine. He rode off to the South, took the shoe covers off his horse, burned the white clothing and saddle, washed the horse and rode home. Two men down in Colorado were caught and sent to Rawlins for the hold up. They had tried twice to rob the same man and they robbed a bank over in Pine Bluffs. Seth, my daddy then cleaned Quess up and rode him into town and around town, showing him off. Secretly he bet all the hold up money, over $35,000 dollars, the bank claimed it was $60,000. Of course, he won the race by half a length and then my daddy took his horse and moved into the western part of the state. He bought a small ranch and he taught that horse tricks. Quess could count. Poppa would ask the horse a question and the horse would paw the answers. Then he learned to rope, all the while doing a little racing. But the man and his horse were one. Each morning the horse came to the edge of the corral for he knew when poppa would be there. He was like one of the family. At the age of 32 poppa was shot by a sore loser and I got the black horse, I got Quess, who by this time was too old to race but he was a feisty one, and I rode him all over the ranch and our part of the county. His demise was a sad one, sad indeed. One day we were riding up a gulch and we spooked a rattlesnake. Quess reared up, catching me off guard and I fell off close to that rattlesnake. Quess did not have time to rear up and stomp the snake, instead he stuck his nose down and shoved the striking rattlesnake off away from me. He was bitten on the nose and I had to put him down. We buried him beside the family graveyard up on the hill, there beside my dad and grand dad. And that black horse with the reverse question mark blaze still lives in this family’s heart.   ~ Tom (tomWYO@aol.com)~ Painting by Marilyn (AceofHearts.aol.com) You are welcome to use the graphics on this page providing you use them as a set and don't mix them with other graphics. You may use a different title and different text, but be sure to include my button and a link back. (http://www.geocities/writerswinter2004/) All poems and short stories on this website have a copyright. If you wish to use one or more on your website, contact the author for permission. 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