The Good Ol' Days

Another weekend gone by without seeing Kachina. It's driving me a little crazy! But Granpa was released from this hospital, and Mom needed my help taking care of him, and of course I wanted to be there with him and make sure he was ok and settled.

I missed the penning finals. Sigh. But, I got to hang out with Granpa and watch old tapes of his pennings. There was one where he won the penning at the Grand Nationals in 2001 on his little white Arab, Jackpot (no, not all cow horses are stock horse type!). It was really amazing to see my grandfather, sick even then, making one of the best runs of his life. And my trainer, who has Kachina now, was one of his partners!

It was funny, too: I remember Granpa pulling me up onto Jackpot as a kid, after one of his runs, and thinking that he was this huge horse. In reality, while tall for an Arab, he was pretty tiny. I also remember the excitement of the show, and how proud I was to be sitting up there with him, on that horse, after a big win.

That was back when horses were still a big part of the community in Oakland and Richmond. It wasn't unusual to see saddle shops and tack stores, or advertisements for rodeos and gymkhanas. There were once a lot ranches scattered the area, and ponies at birthday parties, and organizations that brought horses to the schools and educated inner city kids about African American and Native American cowboys (I know, my Grandmother and Grandfather ran one of the organizations). And it wasn't that long ago -- as little as ten years. It's really sad how horses, and western culture, has been practically wiped out here.

Which makes watching those tapes even more special. It was Granpa's exciting runs that first sparked my love of Team Penning and working with cows. I can't wait for the day when I'm in the middle of that excitement again, this time on my own horse.