Another from way back when. I had started out writing maybe two or three lines on May 1, 1955 when I began my diary/journal. After two years I was a little bit chattier but still pretty brief. From about 1960 on it was normally a full page and I was dumping more of my angst, peeves, sorrows and occasional joys out with a recitation of the day's activites.
Jul 12, 1957
Got up at quarter to eight. Put the horses up in the canyon. Worked on the lower half of the trail. Ate breakfast. Worked on the wires. Walked up town. Not much important mail. Came home. Went down to Janni’s where I stayed til noon watching the horses and playing. Brought them up for drinks. Ate lunch. Rested awhile. Did the ironing. Cleaned up my room some. Measured Tina’s feet. Went over to Cottonwood and got her shoes. Came home. I rode her around awhile. Then we put on her front shoes. A real milestone in Tina’s life like getting to wear lipstick or first date. Did the evening chores. Ate supper. Walked around and saw Evelyn and made up with her. I believe she was sorry as much as I was. I know I will sleep better tonight. I’m glad I apologized. I’m gonna keep doing good and make friends and keep the ones I have. Adios manana, Bella Dona.
!957--seems like another lifetime, really. At that point we had Lady and Chindee, the two old mares we had gotten in the winter of 1953-54, one mule names Louie, and my mare Tina who had been with me about a year and a half at this point. She was at least green broke and doing well, really too tall for me at a good 16 hands at the withers (a hand is a horseman's measurement that equals 4") but I was and always would be head over heels in love with her. She was a very special horse. Putting her first shoes on her hooves was a big event!
There was a lot of grass in places around lower Clarkdale where the rain water pooled and I often had one or more of the critters out there eating while I watched them. Sometimes one would be hobbled--two front feet held close together with a harness strap wrapped above the hooves. Generally I could catch them and they would nor run off but that was a safety measure. Mules, being wily, could be a litle tricky and Chindee had a bit of mule in her disposition!
I do not recall the cause but I'd had a recent spat with my friend Evelyn Morales (nee Graves) and we had been estranged for a few days. Making up felt good. I was never happy to be at outs with anyone I cared about and I was not one who made many friends or made them easily and quickly. Thus those I had were cherished and being crosswise was an unhappy thing. Janni was Janice Benatz, one of my younger friends who was then a horselover.
With my teenaged self-centered grandiousity I was fond of fanciful and high sounding nicknames. Somehow my legal Margaret or common use Gaye never quite seemed real or right for some years. Bella Dona--which means beautiful woman in Italian and Spanish--was what Tina's original owner who still had her mother had called her as a foal. Fancy enough for the moment!! And Spanish, even before I took it in school, was always nearly a second language to me.
Some photos from that time. First one of Tina's early rides. We had started off with her on a lead line Dad held while riding Louie but soon she was moving along on her own and learning to respond to the reins. Next I had Tina and Louie up in the canyon above where our corrals were. It looks like Tina was hobbled. I spent a lot of hours up there in the shady mesquite grove while they grazed. Last me with a tired Tina on a longer ride. The background looks like our land south of Bridgeport but not sure.
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