Night Ride

Twyla and I rode out of the corral a little before 5AM. It was opening day of Mule Deer Season and she wanted to shoot a deer. Our goal was to ride into the canyons a few miles back of our place and work our way down toward the Little Hills Mine. Then we planned on working our way back by another route, thus covering lots of ground if need be. We had our horses loaded with enough stuff to stay overnight if something happened and we had to. I was mounted on Hud, the Appaloosa and she was mounted on Stardust, the 5-gaited mare. Stardust was a gentle old gal who had only one owner most of her life. The lady had trained her to respond to voice commands. If you wanted her to gallop you just said, "Stardust gallop." and off she would go. We let the kids ride her because she was so gentle natured. My oldest daughter often rode her bareback with just a light cord draped around the horses neck. She would respond to a slight tug or just knee pressure.

The Appy was another story. He ran wild in the ciénagas along the San Pedro River until he was 5 years old. The day they caught him my friend Jimmy castrated him with his pocket knife that he had just finished using to scrape the battery terminals on his pickup. When people asked why Hud was so spooky Jimmy just did his best to look innocent. Hud was greenbroke when I borrowed him from the rancher that owned him and finished him up. Riding him in the mountains I found Hud to be the surest-footed horse I had ever ridden. Coming down a bad hillside he would put his head down and look to see where to put his feet. I eventually got to know him well enough that I trusted him in the worst places ... places where I would not try to walk down.

Both horses were used to gunfire but Stardust did not like it. Both horses were used to packing dead critters and didn't seem to mind that. Hud didn't mind gunfire and loved to hunt. When we rode out he was always looking and checking things out. If he put his head up with his ears forward he had spotted something, even if I didn't see it. I learned to trust him on that also.

By sunup we were into the hills, riding slow and watching for deer. The country where we were was in the 4th year of a drought and it surely was dry. The ranchers were having a time with feed and water and the game was suffering right along with everyone else. Areas where there were little seeps and springs that we would water at were dry. In that entire area only the largest of the cattle tanks had water in them and most of them were getting low. And the game seemed to have vanished.

We rode the canyons where the deer were normally hanging out and found nothing, so we kept working our way to lower elevation. There still was water there. About 11 o'clock we rode into a large clearing where a huge pond was. When it was full this pond was 150 yards across and maybe 100 yards wide. Today it was about half that size. It still held a goodly amount of water and we could see the game had been using it. We pulled the saddles off the horses and led to them to water. When they had their fill we tied them to a mesquite tree where they could nibble on the leaves and the little weeds that grew around it. Twyla took the saddle blankets and made a bed in the shade. Then laying down and resting her head on her saddle she promptly fell asleep. I got myself something to eat and then took a walk out a couple hundred yards around the pond, seeing if anything was laying up in the brush. I made a slow circle, taking my time and being fairly quiet, but I never saw anything. I knew my wife and I knew that anything less than 2 hours sleep would not be well received, so I was in no hurry. I made my way back toward the hasty camp and sat down in the shade and dozed for an hour so until she woke up. She had something to eat and then we discussed where to go on the way back home. I thought that if we held to the west a bit there were some areas where I had run across quite a few deer. So eventually we saddled up and loaded up and climbed aboard. The horses were ready to go, tired of standing still and swatting flies with their tails.

As we made our way back toward home I swung wide at one place and Twyla went on ahead. She was 200 or so yards in front of me when I happened to look up see she was off her horse and had her rifle up. I heard her fire two shots and saw her horse take off toward home at a high rate of speed. I kicked Hud into a gallop and we went off after Stardust. At one point I looked back over my shoulder and could see a deer laying on the hillside.

We caught up with Stardust in a few minutes and I pulled Hud into a walk, not wanting to booger the mare any more than she was. By this time she was missing being in the company of others and nickered at us and came when I called her. I got her reins and led her back to Twyla. She said she had ridden up onto this bench and saw deer running. One ran off directly away from her so she jumped off the horse, pulled her rifle and fired. She said she missed but at the shot the deer stopped. She fired again and it dropped.

I rode up to where the deer lay and it looked like she made a 75 or 80 yard offhand shot through the chest entering midway on the left side at the rear ribs and exiting higher up on the right side just under the shoulder blade. I threw my rope around his neck and drug him down the hill to a mesquite tree on a sand wash. There I pulled the deer up until it was clear of the ground. I got out my knives and went to work, boning out the deer. By the time I was finished and we had the meat packed in the saddle bags it was getting dark. We were 6 or 7 miles from home with a lot of rough country between us and there. Twyla asked about it and I told her, "The horses know the way home. Trust them."

We headed toward home as soon as I washed up. The sun was down and it soon it got dark. It was one of those moonless desert nights .. stars so bright you could hardly believe it ... the Milky Way shining bright. But not much light on the ground. At times we rode under a large hill or something you could barely see the ground below you. You just rocked along as the horses walked. Sometimes you could not tell if you were moving or just rocking in the saddle. We rode along for awhile and then the horses stopped and just stood there. Twyla asked what was wrong and I said that I thought they saw something. I decided to get off and see what I could find. When I did I realized we were at a gate and they were waiting on us to open it so they could go through. Then I knew the trail we were on. There were 3 gates like this on the trail. I told Twyla where we were and we both breathed a little easier. Sure enough, those nags took us right to each gate, the last being from Forest Service land onto our property.

It was late when we got the horses rubbed down and fed and watered and ourselves cleaned up and fed. And I was tired the next day. But man was that a fun ride! I am grateful for the memories. The horses are long gone. Twyla has gone also. Now it is just me and the memories. I am blessed to have them.