Meet Pedro

Pedro is my dad's horse. He's a 20 year old gelding out of Dixie, the same mare Otis is out of. Pedro was the result of a stud getting in with Dixie when she was only two. The stud was later sold as an amateur bucking horse, and Pedro got his outlook on life from him. He's mellowed considerably in his old age, and so has my dad.
He was born in the winter, which is why the tip of his ear is frozen off.
When he was younger, Pedro was mean, and had a healthy dislike for humans. This clashed nicely with my dad's extremely limited patience with animals. I have seen Pedro almost kill my dad, and I've seen my dad almost kill him. I was scared to death of him until I was in my teens. He's very hard to catch, and never the horse that's happy to see you, but he's also a horse you can put in any situation imaginable and he'll come through for you. He just smart and knows what to do, and is grumpy enough that he doesn't want to mess around and have to do anything twice. If you were brave enough to get on him, there was no doubt you had enough horse to get any job done.


Pedro was and still is the best cow horse a person could ask for if you can handle him. He can put all his angry aggression into his work, and I've seen him and my dad do some things that aren't in the book, and walk away.
To ride him is like sitting in a comfy rocking chair all day, and he's another all-day type of horse. He is easy to handle and has a soft mouth. Now that he's older he and my dad just cruise along, but when they were younger they did it all. He will never give up, and I've seen my dad, a good dog, Pedro and one mean Hereford cow all overheat in one memorable struggle.


Like I said, today they just cruise around, but those loose reins weren't always like that. He and my dad are the reason for a lot of worn ropes, polite cows, broken fences and good stories at our place, and my dad will have a hard time replacing him in a few years.