Ace

Twenty-three years ago, I married a horse person. Not just a horse person but a very good trainer, rider and cowhand. I am not all ashamed to admit that Jennifer is a much better hand than I am, I just feel lucky and blessed that she didn’t feel the need to find a husband who was more proficient. I tried riding a little, especially during our courtship, but I am pretty sure that whole thing about old dogs and new tricks applied to me and riding.

In any case, along with marrying a horse person comes ownership of horses. We have had several over the more than two decades of marriage. Chico was a horse Jennifer bought for me with the hope that maybe I would get better at riding. He was a short horse, which was good for an unathletic, fat guy in that he wasn’t too hard to get up in the saddle on. However, the fact that he was smaller probably didn’t bode well for carrying the afore mentioned fat guy. We traded Chico for Yeller. Yeller was a much bigger, stouter horse that suited big, fat guys better.

Yeller and I got along well, once I was in the saddle. However, soon after we got him, Isaac started riding and he got his mother’s talent. Needless to say, I had lost my horse and ended up driving the feed truck when we moved the cows. Honestly, it is a job I am better suited for. There were other horses along the line including one named Finance, but that is another story for another day. The only pearl of wisdom here is to take a second look at any animal named Finance.

The only constant in my experience as a horse owner is Ace. Ace is Jennifer’s horse, one of those once in a lifetime horses that nearly ended our marriage only months after it had begun. We were living in Anthony, I was the county extension agent and Jennifer was working for a local rancher by the name of Gerald Schmidt. Gerald hired Jennifer to help him with his cattle and to break his colts.

Soon after she started working for him, Jennifer came home very excited about a colt she was working with. He was the easiest horse she ever worked with and after just one day she could tell he was going to be a great one. Soon after that a gentleman stopped by the Extension office and mentioned that he was looking for a horse, I told him I knew of the perfect one and sent him to Gerald. That night when I got home I knew something was terribly wrong.

Jennifer was not at all pleased that I had sent someone out to look at Ace and made that abundantly clear. I may not be real smart but occasionally I do get things right. I told her that if that horse was that special we had probably ought to find a way to buy him. The next day Jennifer went to Gerald and Ace came to live with us. Since then I have been no higher than second on the organizational leadership chart for our ranch. Jennifer is first, Ace is second and I know my place.

Ace is one of those horses that anyone can ride and do anything on him. Even old, fat guys like me get along with him. With Jennifer he can move any group of cows, sort any calves and herd old grumpy bulls. Even more impressive, when we have kids visiting and they want to ride a horse we grab Ace and he allows them to kick, bounce, scream, giggle and do whatever they want while he walks along half asleep. He is truly a once in a lifetime horse and has earned a permanent place in our barn.

I guess that is why I never thought about him getting old, he was going to be here forever, always around to save the day and catch the cow. God willing, he will be around for many more years, but this fall it became apparent that Ace is no different than the rest of us and he cannot escape the reach of father time. It wasn’t anything big, a stumble here and letting a cow get past him that never would have a year ago. He went hard and put everything into it and was better than 90 percent of the horses out there but the writing on the wall was obvious.

Jennifer has started the process of finding the next great horse, it won’t be Ace, but I have faith in Jennifer’s horse sense that it will be a good one. Yes, twenty-three years ago I married a horse person and began a lifetime of horse ownership. I may not be a hand myself, but I am awfully proud of the one I married and if keeping her in good horses is what it takes for me to stick around then we better find the next Ace.