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Rex Booth
Hi Lynn,
Yes, I worked the Circle F Ranch in 1964. There was a foreman and his wife who lived in the main house. We hands were forced to sleep in the servants (slave) quarters known as the bunk house. The other hands were older and smelled of Dukes rollin' toobackky including the sour odor of digested pinto beans. The foreman was a crusty gritty man in his late 50's or early '60's. The foreman informed us the horses we used for roundup were Spanish Steel Dust and were descendants of early Spanish horses that ran wild throughout the the USA. If you recall, the movie "The Misfits" starring 'Clahk' Gable and Marilyn Monroe, the synopsis was that of men down on their luck trying to reclaim part of their glory days and manhood by trapping and selling wild horses that roamed the Nevada desert. These were probably more the shorter stockier Mustang variety, and unfortunately sold at the local glue factories for a paltry pittance..
"Meanwhile back at the ranch"...no pun intended. We boys spent several days bringing in the "wild horses" which we had to use for round up. At the time there both sheep and Hereford cattle scattered around different parts of the spread. According to the foreman, these horses were supposedly tame. When I mounted the first steed, it went into a circular movement a real twister, then ran along side the corral fence trying to rip my leg off. It bucked a few times and decided to run at full throttle. A quick little movement to the right then to the left send me flying through the air and landed into a patch of prickly pear cactus. As I picked the pricks out of my thigh, the foreman ran over laughing his head off!! He then explained these hoss's ran wild like children 10 to 11 months out of the year and were never ridden except during roundup. It literally took us a couple of days to get these 'wild' horses to fall in line.
It wasn't till years later when Mel Brooks came out with "Blazing Saddles", it reminded me of that sweet 'n sour odor emanating from the Circle F bunkhouse. When you opened the door you could see mirage-like vapors escaping into the cold night air.
Lynn sweetie, you can correct me anytime, anyplace, anywhere. Guess that was wishful thinking on my part assuming you went to North. If you had gone to North we certainly would have had another true beauty to admire at our school. But it was worth the wait to see you in your radiant shining glory at RHS. You can take that to the bank.
A few years later I worked at the Rex Ellsworth Ranch in the Tehacapi mountains east of Bakersfield. Beautiful country with 100 sections of the richest grazing land one could imagome. Pat, that's another adventure for another day.
Regards all y'all
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