Old Red

Now Old Red was a horse on the Bar Double Seven

Way down in New Mexico

Back in them days it was kinda like heaven

Way back before talk radio

Now Mr. McTavish, who owned that fine spread,

was concerned with things economic

Didn’t pay much attention to the cattle or Red

But Red was a pure equine comic

Nobody knew just how Red got his name

He was brown as a fresh-laid cow pie

Had a white spot, a horse laugh, and a good deal of fame

round the campfires, and I’ll tell you why

Red wasn’t real crazy, never ate too much thistle

Big and strong, he could work all dang day

But every so often a new cowboy missile

Would get launched off his back so they say

Generally mild, he could sure make you think

that he was yore buddy, yore pard

Then yore butt would fly up and yore stomach would sink

You'd come down on New Mexico, hard

Red would amble on over and look down at you

Very calm as if he was sayin

“Sorry old son. Hope yore not hurt too bad”

“You know I was only a playin”

On his best behavior for the rest of the day

You’d start thinking it must have been you

Must have spurred him too hard. Must have reined the wrong way

I mean look at him now. Calm and cool.

At the end of the day, and all done with the chores

You’d calmly start to unbuckle

You’d pull his tack off  as his foot stomped on yours

And he’d stand there and give that dang chuckle

Every now and again the boss would come round

just to have a rich rancher look-see.

And one day he figured that he’d at last found

a horse fit for a man such as he

“What should I say?”, thought the foreman just then

“Look out Boss, your brain’ll git rattled?”

And before they all knew it, with a big boss-man grin

McTavish was up in the saddle

All the cowboys and horses and even the steers

Held their breath at the duo’s first meeting

And what happened next then brought the cowboys to tears

As they waited for Red’s bucking greeting

But old Red he just stood there as calm as could be

As the throng gazed with awe and with wonder

McTavish rode off toward the ranch house you see

Old Red’s hooves poundin like thunder

For the rest of their days McTavish and Red

Were together from morning to night

The foreman had figured it out in his head

Seems they suited each other just right

Funny how things work out fine sometimes

Sometimes things just take their course

Red retired as first class comic equine

And became just a one-man horse

Original drawing by Pack Saddle Slim aka Chip Cannon

©2008

Photo by Ellie Mae Mohr aka Sharon Wesley

©2008