A long, long, time ago.

This photo was taken between 23 and 27 years ago. I'm not sure which because the two year old little boy on the horse is either Shawn my now 29 yr old son, or Dan who is his younger brother who is now 25. They are both tow heads to this day and the old picture is fuzzy. The man walking his "joined up" ( you see none of this re-packaged "natural horsemanship" stuff as they call it these days is new) quarter horse gelding is Darrin Hornberger these days of Knightstown, Indiana. He and his wife Kris have been life long horse buddies of mine. Darrin is now one of the top barrel racers in the US. Kris is a journeyman farrier, and a very talented horse woman in her own right.

Anyway...back to the picture. This was taken at a horse "camp out" we all did twice a year on Memorial Day and Labor day weekends at the Double YY Saddle Club in Edinburgh, In, not far from the Hoosier Horse Park. It lasted four days.We went for all four for years. There were hay rides, a live band, a horse show, a fun show, both guided and unguided trail rides, and lots and lots of good times to be had. Sleeping in my 2 room tent, riding my horse day after day. I can not think of any time in my life that was more enjoyable than those lazy, sometimes crazy, days and nights, we all had horsin around at the Double YY.

Now a little about the horse in the photo. Darrin would have been in his early to mid twentys in this picture, and Dude ( the horse) had been his horse since he was a teen showing with me at the Tumbleweeds Saddle Club in Wanamaker, In. The horse was 4 when he got him, so he must have been close to 14 in the picture. he was a great horse. You cant tell from the picture but ole Dude could have been a poster child for conformation defects. He was over in the knees, ewe necked, long backed, and well....we will leave it at that. He did have a pretty head.

 Funny thing about the ole horse though was that he apparently had never read all those books about how a horse must have splendid and perfect conformation to be a top athlete. I guess nobody must have ever told him either. You see...Dude's performance in the speed events ( barrels, poles & flags) was legendary. Plain and simple the horse was hard to beat. When Darrin and Dude showed up to an event people that knew they were in the same class with them let out a "dag nabbit!" Like I said, the horse was hard to beat. The other really cool thing about Dude was anybody could ride him. He was calm and cool on the trails, gentle like he was carrying eggs with a baby on his back, and still a fire ball in the arena. What a neat horse! One I will remember for all the days I'm above ground and not yet taking the big dirt nap.

 Speaking of dirt naps ole Dude has since passed over to greener pastures. He lived out his life with Darrin and Kris on their beautiful 80 acre farm in east central In. Dude spent his retirement years doing much of nothing more than the occasional job of toting a tow headed two yr old around for a few laps of "pony ride" just like he is doing here. Always lots of little kids in the Hornberger's massive extended family, so the ole horse was never short of love and attention. It's funny how you can have such a soft spot in your heart for a horse that wasn't even yours. Dude...he was one of the great ones.