B is for Buford, Blue Water and Bonita

Last week was back to school week in Colorado. For the first time since 2004, there are no currently enrolled students in my family. Instead of returning to Colorado State University this fall, James has decided to take what Seth's friend, Tim, refers to as a "thought break." He's working full time and figuring out what he wants to do when grows up. It's fine, but also, it's made me extremely nostalgic. Given that, today feels like the right day to revisit my new occasional alphabet series. Today's letter is B.

I've ridden a lot of horses whose names started with B: Bob, Bear, Bessie, Bo, Brownie, another Brownie, Buddy, Barton, Beamer, Brandy, Bill, but I don't want to talk about any of those today. Instead, I'm focussing on three B horses I knew back in the summer of 1989, when I was a twenty year old CSU student spending the summer working as a wrangler at the Don K Ranch in the mountains outside of Pueblo, Colorado.

Most of our horses were medium to small sized, but we had two big, black horses that we saved for our larger guests.

view from my bedroom window

This one was named Shamu.

Gina on Shamu

And this one was Buford. I'm pretty sure I'm the one who gave him that name. My friend, Gina, who is riding him in this photo, always called him the Shopping Cart because he never traveled in a straight line. Instead, he was always drifting to the side!

Gina on Buford

Both Shamu and Buford were fun to ride. When not assigned to a guest, the staff fought over them. This is another friend, Claire, riding Buford in the weekly rodeo.

Claire on Buford

On the opposite end of the size spectrum was this sweet little mare we called Blue Water.

She was pretty much an ideal guest horse: calm, reliable and never a problem. 

There was really no reason for me to ride her, but I did at least one time, and happily, Gina was there to take pictures of us.

Last but not least, there's Bonita.

Bonita arrived late in the season. I took one look at her small stature, scraggly hair and roany Apploosa color and fell in love.

Gee, I wonder why?

Like Snickers, Bonita was blessed with a complicated personality. It's entirely possible I used that to my advantage by overstating her issues to ensure she stayed in the wrangler pool. Sorry/not sorry.

Bonita and Doc

B is for Buford, Blue Water and Bonita, three horses I knew way back when I was a student.