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Many years ago when I
worked for the Barkley Cattle Company at the old
Quarter Circle U Ranch I became very well acquainted
with some interesting and provoking cow ponies. Many
of these ponies were pleased to just dump your
carcass anywhere they could. Believe me, they tried
it often, with persistence and with some success.
I will
never forget the time I was riding a pony called
Spook. Spook was a small bay gelding with white
socks and a blaze. He was appropriately named
because this pony could crow hop and complete a full
180 degrees before coming back to earth. He would
spook at the drop of a hat, the snap of a twig or
the strike of a match. My bruised and skinned body
was a testament to this cow ponies ability or to my
lack skill at riding these rough cow ponies. I spent
considerable time on the backs of these broomtails
searching the Superstition Mountains for Barkley’s
cattle, maintaining fence and repairing water holes.
When there was nothing else to do I was busy packing
salt to some isolated area. Ironically, I worked
alone for the most part.
I will
never forget the time I left the Quarter Circle U
Ranch with two pack mules loaded with salt. The
morning was very cold and there were unusually dark
low clouds. Rain or snow was in my forecast. My
destination was the salt grounds on Peter’s Mesa The
ride required about four hours.
I knew
before I left the ranch I wouldn’t get back until
after dark. When I arrived on Peter’s Mesa the
temperature had dropped and the dark clouds had
moved in lower. Bad weather was upon me. Blizzard
conditions had moved in by the time
I was ready to ride down off the Mesa. As I
descended the trail above Charlebois Spring it was
snowing so hard I had to depend on my horse to find
the treacherous trail down off the rugged
escarpment. I turned off the trail and rode into
Charlebois Spring for a temporary shelter. It was
here that my horse and two mules got away from me
and started running for home. I hiked all the way
back to the ranch some seven miles following the
tracks of the mules and my saddle horse. It was so
cold I never stopped to rest. Not only was I
embarrassed I was also quite foot sore when I
finally arrived at the ranch. This will always be a
day I will remember in my annuals at the old Quarter
Circle U Ranch.
During
the 1950’s the Barkley Ranch included some 117
sections of forest and state lease land. One hundred
seventeen sections of land is one hundred and
seventeen square miles my friends. Our range ran
south of the ranch to Tule Canyon and north to the
shores of Canyon Lake. The western boundary was
forest fence east of Apache Junction. The eastern
boundary sliced across Peter’s Mesa through Peter’s
Divide. All of Superstition Mountain was part of the
Barkley Ranch, a ranch that began operating around
1907.
 I
spent many sunny afternoons talking to Gus prior to
his death in 1955 at the old Three R’s Ranch in what
is now Gold Canyon. He was a great story teller, and
he loved his cattle and this mountain. I worked for
his son William Thomas Barkley in the mid 1950’s and
in 1959.
Now
back to those horses I have known. I am a little
older now and a bit wiser about horseflesh. I am not
sure I would have climbed on the back of any of the
horses Barkley owned with the knowledge I have
today. However, in the 1950’s I was young and a very
inexperienced cowboy. A real greenhorn is the best
way to describe it.
Early
one morning we rode out to Tule Saddle to inspect
some calves for screw worms when I met with
disaster. This particular morning I was riding Spook
of course. As I rode through the gate, Spook
crow-hopped into the middle of a large Cholla patch.
I had Cholla balls from the brim of my hat to the
heel of my boot. The pain was excruciating. I
couldn’t even get off the crow-hopping and bucking
horse. Finally I just dove off and landed in a pile
of boulders, luckily not breaking my leg or arm. The
last time I saw Spook he was bucking and running
back to the ranch a mile or two away. You might say
I was in a difficult situation. If you haven’t had a
chance to experience Cholla cactus in your flesh you
haven’t really experienced the Arizona desert.
I
picked up a small piece of Mesquite and began to
knock the Cholla balls out of my hide. This was a
long painful process and to top it off I knew I had
a long walk back to the ranch. It was ten o’clock in
the morning when this horse wreck occurred. I limped
into the ranch about 4 p.m. just in time to feed.
Not one animal in the corral could care about my
painful situation. All they wanted was to be fed on
time.
Spook
is a horse that is still at the top of my memory
list for U Ranch horses. That was just another
incident I had with Spook. Let me tell you about
another. I was always trying to impress Bill Barkley
with my latest acquired knowledge. One day I put on
a pair of bat wing chaps, backwards that is. I
climbed on Spook and did I ever put on a ride for
Barkley. The bat wings spooked that horse like a
bolt of lightning. He literally exploded in the
corral. The next thing I knew the earth was coming
up fast. My impact in the corral startled the cattle
nearby. I was extremely slow getting up, and Barkley
looked at me and said, “Slim you got your chaps on
backwards no wonder the damn horse spooked.” “Well,
why didn’t you tell me that before I got back on the
horse?”
I
continued to ride Spook or maybe he rode me.
Eventually I could stay in the saddle, but it wasn’t
always easy. Another horse Barkley had was named
Scooter. He was also named appropriately. He was
never a problem to saddle or get on. However, once
you were on him he made an effort to scrape you off
under just about every Mesquite, Palo Verde,
Ironwood or Saguaro along the way. Any of the
methods could be quite painful.
One day
I was running a mother cow trying to get a rope on
her and Scooter decided it was time to dump me. He
lined up on a big Saguaro with many arms and grabbed
the bit in his mouth. I lost my control and saw the
Saguaro coming up fast. Believe me I abandoned ship
(horse) at the first opportunity. This particular
departure was quite rough on my hide and my
shoulder. I again limped around for several days
before I recovered from this particular rapid
departure. Believe me I didn’t ride Scooter anymore
than I absolutely had to. He was a horse to reckon
with. I finally started using a mechanical hack with
him and was able to break him of his nasty habit of
rubbing cowboys off his back.
Barkley
had another horse named Sorrel. This was a beautiful
red gelding. He was gentle, but somewhat
inexperienced. One early cold morning I saddled the
Sorrel for a quick inspection of the fence in the
east pasture. Several cows had slipped out of the
east pasture according to our neighbor Bill Martin.
I rode east from the ranch house to locate the break
in the eastern fence line. Barkley’s directions were
often insufficient. I rode east until I reached
Reid’s Water then I started checking out the fence
in several areas where we had problems before.
Sorrel
was walking along not paying a lot of attention
while I searched for a break in the fence line. All
of a sudden we went crashing to the ground. I was on
bottom and the Sorrel was on top. The only thing
that saved my body from the weight of a one thousand
pound horse was two large boulders I fell between. I
lay there waiting for the sorrel horse to make his
move. He just laid there and nickered. He made no
attempt to get up. I couldn’t get out from under him
because my foot was still wedge in the stirrup. This
was a bad situation to be in. If the horse jumped up
to soon he could easily break my leg. After about
ten minutes of lying on two large boulders the
sorrel horse finally got up slowly allowing me time
to extract my foot from the stirrup. I looked myself
over, then the horse and finally remounted and
continue on with my inspection of the fence line
casually as if nothing had happened.
Horses
were my main tool for working cattle, checking
fence, packing salt and inspecting water holes.
Working cattle on the old Quarter Circle U Ranch was
something I really enjoyed even though it was
sometimes very hazardous work. My work on the old U
Ranch was sporadic. I worked off and on for almost
five years. The longest period I worked as a cowboy
on the ranch was in the winter and spring of 1959.
The last day I worked on the Quarter Circle U Ranch
for the Barkley Cattle Company was May 8, 1959. My
tenure as a cowboy was ended by a thirteen hundred
pound Black Brahma-Angus bull named El Gaucho. After
my encounter with El Gaucho I retired from being a
cowboy and choose another career.
After I
retired from working cattle I continued to ride
horses in the Superstition Wilderness for the next
forty-five years. I have owned several horses over
the years. They were Grey Horse, Crow, and Chico. I
rode Grey Horse for about eight years. I rode Crow
for twenty- one years in the Superstition Wilderness
and I have ridden Chico for the past twelve years.
I still
think about those wild and careless days as a young
cowboy on the Barkley Ranch in the middle of the
Superstition Mountains. I was lucky to live and
survive the life many people only dream about. Those
wonderful, wild and sometimes dangerous experiences
are memories I will cherish for the rest of my life. |
