Once Monte rested up a little he proceeded to his next move which was not to take the loop his riata off the Palomino. Instead he tied it into a “come along” around the Palomino’s head. It’s kind of a halter looking configuration that mostly only horsemen know and won’t teach most others. Because it is tied in a way that pinches the nerves under a horse’s jaws and behind their ears.

It is very painful for the horse when pressure is applied and convinces them to “come along” when it’s pulled on. But there is a very fine line between using it right and abuse. Which is why how to tie one is not common knowledge.

Then it was time for the moment of truth. Which was going to be when Monte untied the Palomino’s feet. Monte anticipated another big rodeo and battle. But he had him tied off to the fence and his come along on him and figured he could win the fight.

Monte exercised extreme caution untying the Palomino’s feet because he had proven to be very handy with all four of them and Monte didn’t want to get kicked or pawed again.

But then nothing once his feet were loose. The Palomino just laid there for a few seconds. Or at least long enough to make Monte hope the horse wasn’t hurt

Monte bent down to see if there was anything he could see wrong with the Palomino. And then Katy bar the door the Palomino jumped up.But not like any horse Monte had ever seen before. Instead of scrambling to get his feet under him and stand up the Palomino seemed to just jump up all at once like a deer instead of a horse.

He pushed Monte off to the side almost knocking him down and then fought the halter and rope tied to the fence post. But not for long. The Palomino blew up a little bit and gave the halter few good tugs. And then seemed to know he was caught and gave up fighting. In fact Monte was pretty sure the Palomino looked down and saw the hobble was off and seemed to appreciate that.

Monte let him just stand for a minute or so and then started to pet and talk to him again. And he was a little stunned the Palomino just stood there and let him. Monte even got a little brave and made sure he could pet him all over even the length of his right side which can be a problem sometimes because most cowboys and ranchers only get on and off a horse on the left or “white man side” and lots of times that is all saddle horses are used to.

Monte even walked behind the Palomino going from the right side of hm to the left. He made sure he was out of range of the Palomino’s hind feet. But watched him like a hawk for any indication he might try to kick and there was none.

By the time Monte got back to the front of the Palomino’s head he was scratching and petting all over his head still talking to him and the Palomino was just docile. Like he knew Monte had really helped him and wasn’t going to hurt him.

And it was the same when Monte untied him from the fence. He knew he was untied but didn’t try to fight. Monte gathered up the halter rope and his riata and took off walking and knew right away at least the Palomino was halter broke and would lead.

He led the Palomino all around the little enclosure without incident. Until they passed the gate near where Hawk was tied up and Hawk looked over his shoulder at them.

Then the Palomino kind of spooked and tried to jump over the top of Monte and almost made it. Made it all the way to his flanks at least before he came down on top of Monte knocking him to the ground. And if you want to get hurt by a horse being on the ground under them is a really good way to do it. In fact a good way to get stomped to death.

But instead of stomping on him the Palomino just wheeled around kind of backing up looking at Hawk and the gate actually helping pull Monte back to his feet in the process.

Usually a horse will then try to pull away and make a break for it. But the Palomino didn’t. He was just taking tiny little steps backwards with his eyes and ears on full alert looking at Hawk and the gate.

Monte couldn’t quite figure out what had spooked him. The gate, Hawk, maybe both? Something had but the Palomino wasn’t fighting Monte and the halter rope. He just seemed spooked.

And it wasn’t even a minute of Monte talking to him before the Palomino settled back down and let Monte approach him again.

Then after a little more scratching petting and talking to him Monte started leading the Palomino around again. Only slightly a little worse for the wear of having a horse jump on his head.

Monte led the Palomino close to the gate and Hawk again. And he seemed a little skittish. But after another pass or two it didn’t seem to bother him.

Then there was the matter of how to get the Palomino back down to the stock truck, get him and Hawk loaded up, and get back down the mountain before they all got caught.

By then the Palomino was leading so well Monte thought the best way to do it would be to just lead him to the truck. Everything was working fine. The Palomino didn’t do anything when Monte opened the gate. But he sure as hell did when Monte tried to lead him through it.

The Palomino didn’t blow up again or even try to pull back. Instead he stopped and all but sat down on his hind end.

No amount of pulling even with the come along would do it. The Palomino just simply refused to go through an open gate. Until finally Monte had no choice but to get on Hawk again, dally up and pretty much just drag the Palomino through the open gate.

Then as soon as he was on the other side of the fence the Palomino blew up again fighting both Monte and Hawk and the halter rope and riata trying to run circles around them. Which could have hung both Hawk and Monte if Hawk hadn’t been quick and smart enough to spin and whirl to keep himself and the Palomino head to head.

It wasn’t a long fight but pretty damned interesting before the Palomino decided to settle down and lead again. But then as they approached the truck Monte sure wished he had not left the pelt of the two-toed coyote hanging off the mirror on the passenger side. Because that spooked the Palomino again. And even Hawk wasn’t too sure about it and seemed at least a little spooked.

The Palomino then stopped fighting enough for Monte to get off Hawk and tie them both to the back of the truck. He threw the coyote pelt into the cab of the truck and grabbed his war bag and found his can of Bag Balm.

It was time for Bag Balm all around. The Palomino really needed something on his front leg and Bag Balm was the best Monte had at the moment. Hawk also needed a little on his two cuts. And Monte needed lots and lots on his cut ear, bitten arm and a few other places. But to his chagrin Monte didn’t have lots and lots. The can was close to empty and Monte used most all of it on the Palomino and Hawk.

Besides Monte decided he would have to take his shirt off to get to his arm. A sight probably only his wife Mickey had ever seen. He also thought they all needed a drink of water and he needed to wash off the bite.

Monte was preparing for another big fight but he didn’t get one. To his surprise the Palomino just let Monte lead both him and Hawk down to the creek. Now maybe want of water helped. But for some reason the Palomino was acting like a broke horse again.

Down at the creek in the shade all of them had big drinks of water and seemed to relax. Monte got his shirt off and his arm was a little worse than he thought. The bite broke the skin on both sides and maybe a little muscle too. He could only scrape enough Bag Balm out of his can for a thin coat on the bite. And all the other wounds would just have to wait.

All three of them took a little shade break just to rest and relax a little bit. Monte also let both horses eat some of the green and very tender grass along the creek bank which was a delicacy for them.

And then Monte led both horses back up to the truck. The Palomino was leading so sweet and docile Monte thought he might be able to just take him to the back of the truck and load him up.

Wrong again. The Palomino acted like he had never seen a stock truck before and just tried to sit down again. Monte tried to coax him and pull him to no avail. And then thought maybe he really hadn’t seen a stock truck before.

Monte thought maybe if he loaded up Hawk first the Palomino would get the idea and go along with it. The truck was backed up right to the road bank. It wasn’t even more than a tiny step to get in the truck. But nope he wasn’t going to do it.

Monte finally had to unload Hawk again run his riata through the truck then to the back where Monte could use a combination of pulling on Palomino with the “come along” and kind of spook him from behind.

It wasn’t working at first but when it did it worked all at once. Probably from the pain of the come along the Palomino finally went from a nearly sitting position, jumped into the truck, and tried to jump out the other end. The riata held him but the Palomino went plumb down in the back of the truck for a few seconds. A good way for a horse to break a leg. But the Palomino jumped back up and for the second time that day Monte finally had him.

One down and one to go and all Monte had to do was load up good old Hawk. But as soon as Hawk got to the gate of the truck the Palomino suddenly pinned his ears back and started kicking like he was going to fight Hawk.

And then Hawk wasn’t having it and refused to load. Monte finally had to tie the Palomino up even shorter and run his riata from the front of the truck to the back a few times so he couldn’t kick at Hawk. And then only when the Palomino was pinned to one side of the truck would Hawk begrudgingly load. And was not happy about it with his ears also back.

Then all Monte had to do was hop in the truck and get headed down the mountain to beat Ted back to the ranch. But hop turned out to be about right with his hurt ankle and he could barely pull himself into the cab.

When Monte pulled into the P-Bench it looked like the whole outfit was gone. Probably up on the mountain at their summer place.

Monte decided he didn’t want to take another chance at untying the Palomino with Hawk still in the back. So he backed up to the ramp they had and unloaded Hawk first. It was eating up time but better than risking another rodeo.

Monte just tied Hawk up at the ramp and then backed the truck up to the loading chute on the corral. Then he got the Palomino unpinned took the come along off him and untied him.

But it was the same in reverse. Now the Palomino wouldn’t leave the truck. Monte had to go to the front of the stock rack climb up the truck and try to spook him out. And again it didn’t work until it worked all at once. The Palomino suddenly wheeled and jumped out of the truck and at least half way down the chute.

Then Monte got to thinking maybe that wasn’t the best idea because the loading chute emptied into a pretty big part of the corral. So he hobbled over the rails and tried to approach the Palomino again thinking it would probably be another big fight to get a hold of the halter rope and try to hold the Palomino.

But just as many times that day Monte was wrong. The Palomino just stood there like he was glad to see him again. And when Monte grabbed the halter rope the Palomino just took off letting him lead him again.

Monte had to lead the Palomino through a couple more pens to get to the horse corral which was round, much smaller and much higher.

And every time the Palomino saw an open gate he balked again. But this time Monte didn’t try to fight him and drag him through. Instead he would just stand there talking to the Palomino until he settled down, turn his back, walk through the gate and the Palomino would then just follow him through.

He got the Palomino into the horse corral and then thought he should take off the halter ropes so he wouldn’t accidentally hang himself. But then had another problem.

He wasn’t sure no one and especially the rancher’s kids wouldn’t come around and try to get in the corral with the Palomino. So about all he could do was find a red rag and tie it around the gate as a warning.

It was late in the afternoon by then almost going on evening. Monte loaded up Hawk again who was glad to do it. And then drove a little faster than usual to get back to the Battle Ax.

No one was in sight when he unsaddled Hawk and led him out of the truck. So Monte led Hawk down to the barn to put some more Bag Balm on his cuts because the purple medicine for cuts would be too obvious even at a distance.

Then Monte grabbed a feed bag and a very generous helping of oats and let Hawk eat them. Petting Hawk and telling him what a good horse he was.

And Hawk told Monte, ”maybe so but you are still one crazy son of a bitch. Leave me out of any of your crazy missions in the future Monte.”

Monte turned Hawk back out into the fields with the other saddle horses. Hopped back into his truck, literally. And headed back to the P-Bench fearing it would be just his luck to pass Ted going back. But his good luck held instead of the bad. And it was good luck considering he was probably lucky to be alive.

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