The horses we'd brought back from Gallup, NM on September 12 were just getting settled in. The little red colt was Peppy's son that we were soon calling "Dingbat." Not because he was crazy but his regular name Dingbob was equally silly! He was similar in age to Bravo, Tina's first colt, and they were together a lot. And of course "Dusty" was coming to dominate many of my thoughts as we had met and talked several more times since his visit to the pasture including the previous Friday midday. In one conversation he said something about getting a photo of me from Danny that confused and troubled me. That's some background for this day.
Oct 3, 1964 Sat
I took pretty much of a vacation today. I got up about 6:45 and fed. Didn’t even saddle up. We loaded our stuff and drove out . Worked on the little red colt who’s real smart but not as quick as Bravo, and I even rode Peppy around the corral. She is such a nice mare, really. I like her. When we got home, around 11:00 Charlie Mike and I watered, cleaned the corrals and did the noon feeding. After lunch we took a hike down the river. Waded, hunted for wildlife and came home via the bridge. I stood in Dusty’s tracks and was surprised to see how close to finished they are. We rode out on Annie and Buzzie again. Tire tracks like Dusty’s drove clear down the river road, over our last evening’s tracks. Well?? I don’t know. I was distressed to find that Peppy had lost her colt. I guess we’ve got a ‘bug’. Tina may have miscarried already. This is sure a rough piece of luck. but if it gets us moved, like to Mohave, any faster, I guess I can take it. After supper I wrote on my narrative of the "Santa Fe Affair" --a great waste of paper no doubt. I must question Dusty about the photo from Danny bit. I’m suspicious of that suddenly. Guess we’ll take Chief out in the morning so I doubt I’ll get to go to church with Evelyn tomorrow. Not that it matters. I think Dusty will be anxious to see me next week. He has my mags and said he wants to take a photo of me. If I don’t see him Monday, I’ll write him about that photo.
I called it a 'vacation' if I did not have to hurry and saddle up to ride out to the pasture for those morning chores. I knew we'd be driving and took my time, loaded a few extra things--probably to do some hoof trimming or doctoring though I did not say so. It was kind of a waste that we never really rode Peppy. Didn't ride Susie much either. Pep was at least basically broke and always had a nice calm disposition. I am guessing I rode bareback and probably just made a makeshift hackamore with a lead rope. We made it a practice to work with all the colts from about day one so they could be led, feet handled and were thus easier when the time for more training came. Bravo had been worked with almost daily since his birth in March and Dingbat was already fairly gentle and no trouble to handle. This was one of my main jobs at this stage.
B&B 6 was mainly working on the Bitter Creek Bridge which had been flood-damaged in late Augsut as I mentioned earlier. They did a few other smaller jobs and some work up the track out of Clarkdale while they were there but that bridge was the main one. In about five weeks they had gotten a lot done. That was a bit distressing to me. When would they be leaving?
Charlie Mike and I rode out with Buzzie and Annie. Buzzie was getting pretty well trained by now and Annie was generally a good relable mule so Charlie Mike rode her often. He was learning and I was teaching him a lot of what I had learned from Charley Bryant and elsewhere. I might add that mares losing colts is not all that unusual. Just like other female creatures, it does not take much going wrong to cause a miscarriage but I was alarmed at this and worried there might be more. Later there were as we did get a "bug" which was a kind of equine VD, probably from the mare Scarlet we had gotten on September 10. Tina was okay; she had Rico the next spring.
Earlier when I was still trying to pursue Danny, I had sent him a letter and included a wallet size copy of my senior picture. I later learned that along about that time, before Danny quit, he had tried to persuade Dusty to go out with him and Joyce, maybe with one of her girlfriends. Dusty had said, "If you can get "Muley" for me, I'll go." He didn't even know my name then but was interested. I think Danny got the idea then to play matchmaker but this only came out in fragments over several weeks. Anyway Danny passed the picture to Dusty and probably told him I had suggested it. This was such a goat chase for awhile!! A lot of the 'intrigue' makes me laugh now.
So some pix to liven it up: Charlie Mike with Digbat a few weeks later. Peppy with the colt she later had sired by Chief. We called him Sassy. B&B 6- their 'outfit' and camp cars. They looked pretty well used! And the bridge, back in late August after the flood. The three pillars had to be rebuilt and then the underneath part of the bridge reinforced.
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