The Ballad of Mad Bob

Over 20 years ago, I worked for Sam Wilson back when he had Bob Acre Doc.  I never got to ride Bob, but in the 8 months I worked for him I rode every two year old on the place.  Ya, I know…eight months.  Not very long, but I think colt starters (especially young ones) are a lot like feedlot cowboys.  See I grew up with a Dad that was a feedlot cowboy most of my life.  The joke was that you didn’t have to fire a feedlot cowboy; he would be gone in 60 days anyway.  Don’t get me wrong, my Dad was an exception to the rule for the most part.  But I watched a lot of the younger guys come and go…like nomads, hence the similarities between young colt starters and young feedlot cowboys.  To bolster this opinion I have some scientific facts that I personally created.  When my wife and filed our taxes the year before we got married, she had one W-2….I had four.  That’s right, I said four.  Four jobs in one year….and still made less than $10,000 for the year.  No wonder I was so skinny, I was starvin’ most of the time!

But I digress, this is about one of the colts I rode for Sam.  We had a couple that looked like Bob, and being the creative minded guys that we were….we called them Bad Bob and Mad Bob.  The names had more to do with their temperaments than anything else.  Bad Bob was a nasty bucker, again the creative name.  Mad Bob, well you guessed it….he was an angry horse!

Brothers Are a Pain

This is a guest post from my Mom, Cathy Johnson.  Which goes to show that the Johnsons' were not the only crazy people,  the Dennee's were right there on the edge of crazy!  can you imagine being so angry at your brother/sister that you could get where this story went....oh wait....I've been there.

Enjoy the read, check Mom and Dad out.  They do a good job helping peope with horses, Mom just didn't used to be so good with her brothers!

Here's Mom:

Even though I look like a pretty easy person to get along with, when I was a kid, I was quite the bossy big sister.  I was the oldest one in a family of four younger boys.  I helped my mother with all my younger brothers as they came along and it was just second nature to me to think my brothers had to mind me. 

I had two brothers, close to me.  Billy, who was about 8, and Phillip, who was around 6.  Phillip was the pain in my “you know what”.  He and I were forever at it, and Billy would egg him on.  Our parents had a rule about fist fighting, but that didn't even slow us down when we got out behind the barn or behind the haystack.  We were a pretty uncivilized little tribe.

Super Ninja Cowboy

There was a time in my life when I didn’t know what the word impetuous meant.  If you look it up in Webster’s, it says:

1.  Marked by impulsive vehemence or passion
2. Marked by force and violence of movement or action

As I’ve gotten older, I can look back and see that I was train wreck on a horse.  There were some things I did, that offered a good deal to a horse….and there were some things that if anyone was watching they would be thinking, “what the heck is he doing up there?”  This is a couple of those times…

The Cowboy Miracle

I don’t often mean to be preachy, but when I see a miracle that speaks to the cowboy, I feel it is my obligation to point it out!

If you know anything about starting colts, you know there is some work involved.  There are not too many operations left that just climb on and let ‘em buck.  As much fun as that was in my younger years, it turns out it was hard on me and hard on the horses.  A more sensible method has a person doing some ground work to prepare the horse for this big ol’ predator to crawl up on its back.

The groundwork now-a-days, at least for me, involves some desensitization (probably not as much as I should, my mind thinks I’m still 20 something….my body calls my mind a fool), driving, more desensitization….my point is this:  There are several days of groundwork before a person should crawl up on a colt. 

Young men are another story entirely and it usually involves being bulletproof and rubbery to the point of bouncing when they hit the ground.  But eventually all young men grow up and start doing some sort groundwork on their colts.

God pointed this out to me a couple of years ago one Sunday morning in Mark 11:1-10

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mound of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden.  Untie it and bring it here.  If anyone asks you, “Why are you doing this?” tell him, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly”.

They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway.  As they untied it, some people stand there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”  They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go.  When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.  Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.  Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna”

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”

“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David”

“Hosanna in the highest!”

The first thing I noticed was that God’s plan was so perfect, that the only question asked was “what are you doing, untying that colt?”  The (at the time) good people of Jerusalem just took the disciples response, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.”  And basically said “ok, no biggy”.

What did they disciples do next?  Why they took their coat and just flung them over that colt’s back!  I haven’t yet had a colt I could do that on the first day!  Then Jesus climbed up and sat down!  Again, not a cowboy out there, that I know, has been able to do that!  Mr. Bronc-y Colt never made a bauble as Jesus commenced to ride him down the road.  First ride, first day, people!  First day, first ride!  Does not happen at training centers or ranches!  On top of all of this the (at the time) good people of Jerusalem were throwing their coats and tree branches, in the road in front of Mr. Bronc-y Colt.  All the time they were shouting and carrying on:

“Hosanna”

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”

“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David”

“Hosanna in the highest!”

All the colts I know would have been pitching like crazy, scared out of their minds!

That my friends is a miracle of Jesus!  Who takes an unbroken colt, steps on and rides him down the road with people throwing coats and branches on the ground in front of the colt?

The answer is pretty simple.  MY GOD!  MY KING!  JESUS CHRIST!

He died and became our sins!  Paid the price for me!  Doesn’t get much better than that!  I pray that if you don’t know Christ as your Savior today, you will accept this free gift.  He paid the debt we owed because we owed a debt we could not pay!

Praise JESUS!