Monte Foreman: The main focus through these years continued to be the trail rides, parades, Maricopa Trails Committee, work on the major trails and clinics. It was a good way to raise money and everyone enjoyed them.
Emery Henderson would teach packing, Chuck Lakin would talk nutrition and a new star arrived on the scene, Monte Foreman. He was the original horse Whisperer, and we were all students. There were evening meetings where he lectured with the help of video films, displaying the proper way to train your horse. He provided two books on the subject; one was called The Horse Handling Science and detailed the proper manner to train and correct problems. The other book was Those Cantankerous Leads. It seemed like everyone in the organization was a follower of these books and principals.
During the day, Monte would have his clinics where you could join a group for lessons or you could get private tutelage: that is if you could afford it.
One of the principals that was encouraged was the “balanced ride”. Seems that together with the Falsie Saddlery of Colorado, Monte had designed a saddle that better distributed the weight of the rider over the horses’ front legs and in doing so, the horse was able to perform better. Everyone who bought the saddles, swore by them.
I doubt that anyone had more influence over the horsemen of that time than Monte Foreman had.
Special horses: If you have read the previous chapters, you have to realize that this history is about people and horses, more than an organization.
When I think about horses, a few immediately come to mind. The first would be a rolly poly Buckskin owned by Tom Thomas, horseshoer, chairman of the county committee and excellent horse trainer and driver. This magnificent equine was 15 hands tall and round, like a butterball; in fact her name was “Buttercup”. Tom was into competitive riding, and offered to let my 12 year old daughter Connie ride her in a twenty-five mile event. As I recall, the ride was out near the McDowell’s, and darkness fell before the ride was over. I was nearly petrified with fear as time went on, and no horse and rider appeared. My fears were unfounded because after a couple of hours, this faithful buckskin and rider appeared.
Tom used Buttercup on several competitive rides at Mormon Lake, and unfortunately on one, she fell and broke a leg. Tom had to put her down and bury her on the site. Several Memorial Buttercup rides were held in later years.
Super Chief: Emery Henderson had a Morgan colt that he named “Super Chief”. When the colt was two. We had a ceremony celebrating a new horse tunnel under the road near the Biltmore. Emery brought the colt and a light cart that he used for training. It seemed that some of the horses were leery of the tunnel, but not chief. It was amazing to watch him go back and forth through the tunnel pulling that cart and Emery like it was commonplace. Chief lived to an old age and gave the Hendersons’ many pleasant rides.
Emery had a clinic at his house off Carefree Highway one time, and accomplished what to me seemed impossible. He hung a chain saw under one of his horses, with the engine at full throttle, mounted and rode off as if it was the natural thing to do. (Yes, the chain had been removed)
Stormy: I was fortunate enough to raise an Appaloosa Stallion, and then gelding, that belonged in the elite class. He was very trainable and beautiful to look at. He enjoyed driving when he was two and riding when he was three. One of the things he would do was lie down on command and on many county rides, I was able to eat my lunch sitting on him while he was lying down. Stormy was a handsome pure white horse, with a sprinkling of color on his back sides. I was fortunate to take Stormy on a ride into Havasupai Canyon with Emery, and he was an instant hit with the Indians. They all wanted to ride him and a few did. I have a memorable picture taken by Emery with Stormy and me at the top of Mooney Falls.
There is an old cowboy saying that you are very fortunate if in your life you have one good horse, one good woman and one good dog; not necessarily in that order.
To be continued
Chapter 5 - The 80's
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