[music] Giddy up again. [laughter] Well, based in Silver City, New Mexico, Victoria Chick is a contemporary figurative artist and early 19th-20th-century print collector. And she's back on Big Blend Radio today. We're going horse riding. Well, not really. She's joining us to talk about the art and history of working horses in America. And her article is featured in the February to April 2019 issue of Big Blend Radio and TV magazine. You can also see it up now. Just go to blendradioandtv.com and type in Victoria, and you'll find all our articles, including this one. And it really is quite amazing how much horses have done. You can also go visit her website. She's got a horse paintings. Yes, she does. Beautiful ones. Go to victoriachick.com and you can read all our articles as I was saying on blendradioandtv.com. But Victoria, welcome back. How are you? Oh, thank you Lisa. I'm really great today. We're having a sunny day for a change. I know it's almost always sunny in New Mexico, but we've had a state of rainy weather, which we aren't complaining about exactly because we can always use that. But it's nice to see the sun again. Well, you know, it's interesting because it's cloudy here in Tucson. We've had rain and wildflowers are already coming up thinking it's spring. The doves are hanging out going eight. It's time to have babies, baby doves, and everyone's lovey-dovey. And we're like, "No, stop. We're not ready." But actually, we are too much too familiar. Yeah, well, you've got snow, and you've had a lot of snow in your area, too. Yes. It's going to be a beautiful spring season for the Southwest, for sure, for sure. You know, I know that you have horses. In fact, we were just looking at some photos from when we visited you on the beginning of our tour, our park's tour, a few years back. And we came and hang out with you with Priscilla, a little sock monkey, and her entourage of characters. And that's what I'll call them. Remember flying Fabio? That, you know, just talking about flies? Yeah. And we had Pino Pony, and Nancy found a photo of Pino Pony in your horses. The little court pony. Oh, okay. There's a little rocker cotton cap. Yeah, and there's, you know, here's your horse's head, which is big. And here's this teeny little Pino pony in the paddock. And they talk to you. And your horse is like, "What is that?" [laughter] But anyway... Yeah, they weren't too sure. I remember that. Yeah. This is a made-up to go. Horses are always kind of like, "Okay, what's up there?" You know, but they're, you know, reading your article. I know we've done a lot of shows on horses over the years, and wild horses. But it really brought it back home to me about the fact that really horses, they built America. I look at it that way, you know, with how much they've done. Right. Mm-hmm. Couldn't do it without them. Mm-hmm. I didn't realize, like, how much, you know? Well, you started as a young girl totally, you went gaga for horses like I did. Oh, yes. Yeah. You read all about them. Tweaked keys to my grandparents and my mom, and to let me go to the stables and take a writing lesson, which I think at that time was like a dollar and a quarter. And that was big bucks when you have a 10 cent allowance a week. So you had to save up for a while. Yeah, but I always was crazy about them. And I don't think that's actually ever changed. No, they're magical, man. And I think they're really smart. They're smart. They're curious, you know, they're curious about things. And they're just so strong, you know? They're just, and they're amazing. It's amazing that you can actually write them without letting me. I think that's the most magical thing about them. Mm-hmm. You're a small person and your horse is so much bigger than you are. And yet you can get on their back and you can direct them. And they don't mind. They don't seem to mind anyway. Especially with little kids, they don't seem to mind. So you sort of get transformed when you're on a horse. Mm-hmm. And you know, out here in the southwest, I used a lot, you know, in the west, the far west in ranching. And so they're still being utilized. Like, you know, they're still work, you know, the term "workhorse" is really true. For you, did you fell in love with horses? Wanna go to stables? But as a child, did you realize how much horses did for us? Or is that something that grew as, you know, as you grew up? Well, no, I didn't know. I mean, that was not a concept for me at the time. Although when I was young, and this was like in the 1950s, the horses were still used to pull a mower for the highway department. So the highway department, the edges of the road were always trimmed. And it was done by horse-drawn mowing. And I know in my article, I was saying that that sort of had died out around the 1930s. The use of horses so much. But it really persisted in some areas longer, longer time than that. And I had forgotten about that until I started writing the article. So I brought back the memory. And then also, I mean, your art. So art and horses kind of hand in hand for you as an artist when you started getting into art. Were they kind of at the same time? Oh, yes, sorry, as far as writing the article. Yeah. I hadn't thought about it in quite a while. And so I mean, when I was taking, well, even from when I was a little kid, my dad had a friend who was an artist. His name was R.H. Polensky. And his work was widely reproduced at James. And he was, when I met him when I was three, and of course I was, you know, he was crayons at the time. And I used to show him like my horse pictures and what he was pretty nice about looking at them. Because he was a really wonderful artist. He did mostly thoroughbreds, mostly thoroughbred race horses. So he was my first, the first artist I knew, the first art doing the first horse out art that I was really aware of. And after that, I kind of would always see pictures. I mean, I kept drawing pictures and I would always see pictures. I would look at books about horses and stuff. So it was a thing with me. But it wasn't really until I got to college when I started being aware of great art. Significant art that was done with a horse's subject. All the pictures at the time that I saw tended to be horses, you know, horses that were beautiful, almost like horse portraits. The English artists were particularly good at that. Some of the English artists did horse prints. And they were mostly steeplechase horses or race horses. Or they were, Edward May did some great pastel horses. And my favorite one was Rosa Bonur, an artist at that time I had never heard of before. But she was an expert in doing horses. And she did this one wonderful painting. It was a very large painting called The Horse Stair. It was full of horses. Beheld by grooms and such. I guess it was a painting of kind of like an auction area where they would auction off horses. So the horses always looked their best to get ready for this. And they're all guffied up with braided tails and so forth. And they're all shiny. I mean, that's that painting. I love that. I mean, her work is incredible. She's got the muscles down in the situations. It was unusual that she was a woman artist at the time. You know, I mean, there weren't a lot of women artists at that time. So that she was so good. It was surprising to me also when I was taking art history because most of the time we were just aware of that time of male artists. So. Cool. Cool for her. Horses are really fun to draw and paint because of their muscles and the shine. And then you get the nice mane and the tail and this movement. They're graceful and they're kind of like flowers in a way. Right. And even the horse that you wouldn't think of as being, you know, if you saw it in person, you wouldn't think it was like the best horse in the world. Well, you see it, a painting of it. The artist can make that horse be wonderful. Not pretty, not pretty, but just the artist could capture the strengths and the character of the horse. And that itself is a beautiful thing. There's so much energy that they put this. You know, and they just, it seems like they move their body. I don't know. There's just, there's, it's limitless to how you paint horses. And then you have very good rounds and that's fun too. I know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or just have a presence, I would call it, you know, their personality comes out. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Mm-hmm. And then when I, when I started collecting prints, that was when I realized that there were all kinds of artwork out there that didn't have to do with prettiness or, oh, pleasure. I guess, pleasure. Because, you know, we get away from race horses and we get, because there's kind of these horses, areas that are glamorous or people consider them glamorous as activities for horses. But there's, there's all kinds of artwork that deals with horses that just did everyday work. And I, like you said, at least at the beginning of the show, that there, there's an amazing amount of work that, that made horses, I would say, you know, helped, they helped to build America and that is absolutely true. Mm-hmm. Because even, you know, there's the war horses, you know, that really, the work horse, the war horse, and you talk about that and even how the cavalry used them, the civil war. Right. And, you know, and I think about the Halloween field. Yeah, and all the, you know, we were talking about this on the show the other day, but, you know, how they were used, like, look at the Pony Express and the Butterfield Overland mail route, which is my new obsession. Right. And, you know, the-- Right. Even taking, taking, uh, sellers across the country. Yeah. Never that fun. You know, go ahead. And if they had to go on foot, they probably wouldn't die, all died on the way. That's for sure. They had to run from Indians, too. Yeah. Right. I mean, any Indians had horses. I mean, we, I didn't deal much with that, but I mean, the, the horse was really important to the American Indian. I thought that, and I always thought of them as being, like, war horses or horses that were used for hunting that the Indians would use to go out and find game and so forth. So, I was really surprised when I saw one print that showed the horses' oppression grain. Like, running around in a circle. They would have to go around this kind of circular area. Yeah. Yeah. Um, they used them in ways that I had never thought of, and it's the art that brings that out. There's a, there's a fire truck in Nogales, um, just a few miles from us that Wyatt Herp had helped push, and it was a horse-drawn fire wagon. Yep. Yep. Yeah. That must have been very exciting. I think we got the throw buckets of water at, at birdie buildings. Yeah. Well, yeah, they, they were used for that. The police used them all the time. I mean, we think of the Texas Rangers or, um, this, you know, share of writing into town on a horse or, you know, chasing the bad guys on, on horseback. But, um, they also used them in, in, like, even in New York City, really, really, really, in the larger cities, um, for crowd control. Right. Got a new, uh, police officer on horseback. It was way taller than a Senate pedestrian, and, you know, commands a lot of respect. Oh, well, I've, I got pulled over by a, a mountain policeman. Yeah. Yeah. At a Fourth of July celebration on the beach. I didn't know I could walk out on the beach with my wine and ocean fire. Yeah. And the policeman said, and I started playing with the horse, and he's like, you can't be touching the horse. You can't be drinking there. You need to go in. And I'm like, oh. Oh. Well, that just totally wins the whole, the fun. I want to go have my wine on the beach. What do you mean? It's Fourth of July. Yeah. You know, when, when we were in South Africa, they really didn't care if you had wine on the beach. No. But there wasn't any laws. But I'm sure there is now. I, I think that was my first second, first or second glass of the day, because it was a huge party. But I looked at it. I'm like, wait a minute. Am I in Canada? You know, we say there's mountains, you know, but yeah, that, and the horses, I mean, it's just, that always amazes me about horses and crowd control, just having horses ourselves and my horse always being like the skittish one, you know. And these horses aren't like that. I mean, you, you're in a crowd and people do, you know, you know what happens in crowd silliness, you know, it happens. And I'm just going to say stupidity a lot of times, you know, and we have, we have, we've got a melted patrol here in, in the Silver City area, or Valley County, actually. Yeah. And they do use it for crowd control. And you would think how many crowds you need to control in Silver City, but not that many. But when you have an accident or you want to keep people away or there's a fire area and you want to keep people from going into the fire area, there's always somebody who's gone, who wants to go see something up close. So having a melted patrol, it's really useful. Mm hmm. And cool. It's interesting, you know, when you think about, but a horse is going to war, that's the thing too. I mean, you know, the buffalo soldiers, you know, they were on horseback, you know. And so it's interesting because, you know, over the years, we've talked about all these different, you know, periods of history and, you know, just different things and how art has portrayed it. And so there is this strong line of how horses have been portrayed through the years. But as this, you know, working and doing something for us, I think, sometimes I think it should be our national animal, you know. Well, yeah, you're, I don't think that would be out of line at all. Yeah. And I think that, I think that it was one of the choices, but then I guess it was Theodore Roosevelt that made it the buffalo. Yeah. Awesome. I like them too. I like them all. You know what I mean? There's a symbol of freedom with it, you know, with the horse for me. There's a strong, you know, symbol of that. And I think that's what's so interesting about, you know, I don't want to get into the drama of the wild horse situation. But I think that's what's so, where it gets weird, where it's hard for people to understand a horse being completely free or wild, or wild, you know what I mean? Yeah. Versus we're used to them being in the stable because even when you think the trail rides and horse shows and things like that and racing, they are also working for humanity at that time. Well, because for many years, and even still now, it was thought that horses were brought here by the Spanish, and horses were brought here by the Spanish, however, there is some evidence that horses were also native to North America. And that's still up for grabs. There's a circle of people who have seen the fossils and are convinced, and then there's others who say, "No." So that's not a start-back. So when you think of a wild horse, people can't visualize that horses, they think in feral and they just turn wild, but other people believe they have been born in the wild as wild horses and not descendants of horses brought over by the Spanish. But who knows? I think they're pretty amazing. They should just be able to run around free if they want. They are. Exactly. They are. I know. Wow. And there's so many breeds. Different breeds are suited to different things. I think when you look at draft breeds, for instance, I mean, they're always skinny too. They have your work. And some of them are very beautiful. Some of them are, maybe some people would consider them more coarse looking, but there's a beauty too. Of course, you know, their heaviness, their kind of, their heriness a lot of times. Some of them have really beautiful long hair done by their fatlocks. Yes. Me, she has heavy mains and tails. Yeah. Yeah. And they can be any color. Any color at all. They're getting a really nice furry winter coat. I was always amazed at that, like the horse I had was part Flemish Thoroughbred and part Clydesdale. And he had black, black, you know, locks around his lower legs and he had a huge, huge long tail on the big mane. He was one big horse man. He looks like some of the horses that are in the painting that was done, The Horse Fair by trying to get her name at Rosa Bonheur. He looks like there's that one big white horse in there and or a gray rat. Yeah. That's what Sir T's looked like. And he, I mean, he was named after a race car driver and he used to go off in the paddock and jump over the jumps and do everything on his own. He did his own shows. He was amazing. Yeah. He was having fun. Yeah. Yeah. One time when I entered a jumping contest, we did the jump, the jump forward and then he turned around and everybody is clapping and all that. Next thing I know, he's doing the jumps backwards. Not backwards. He was into it. He turned around. The horse. He jumped, you know, it was okay to come to those jumps like bleacher jumps. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man. Scary, but he could do it. But these different breeds, I want to ask that because, you know, there's smaller horses, you know, in like the Arabs, right, the Arabian horses. Right. But then what about mules? I mean, that's not a, are they on their own thing, like their own classification? Because mules, look at them. They take people down the Grand Canyon. Donkeys do mules. Right. Mules have been like a way forward. Mules are in the same category of equines as horses. But they are, they are not, they are used almost always sterile. And they are part horse and part, they could be part burrow or they could, there's also a mammoth burrow that's a little bit bigger, but they're, they are hybrid. And they're very, they are very sure footed, they're strong, they are very smart. They can, they can do a lot of things very well. Foresters and service uses them extensively as pack animals, but they're also good riding animals. Hmm. Like, well, they're known for being stubborn. That's all I know about them. Well, so, so they're, they're very smart. I mentioned that. And if there's, if they decide there's something that they really don't want to do, or you're asking them to do something foolhardy, they will, they will just stop, they will just bulk and they will not do it, they will, then he's, like, we had a trail rider a couple of years ago and this really nice mule, very good, very good mule. And he went out the first day and he did an excellent job and his rider was taking him out the second day and he got a mile, about a mile from camp. He wasn't as supposed to ride as far as he had the first day, but he didn't know that. And, and he got about, about a mile on a camp and he decided that was really enough for the day. And he wouldn't go any further. And the poor lady, you know, she was trying to get him to go, but there was no way. So, so she turned him around and he, he just walked right back to camp. Well, they say stubborn as a mule for me, because they do mule, so it's like, it must, it must happen quite a bit, you know, because, but they're smart, they know, they know they did what they did yesterday and they really don't want to do it again and you're not going to convince them. Yeah. Okay. So the meal, because I've always been fascinated by them, but because I mean, they really are like hearty, but horses are too. And you're saying, yeah, about the different breeds and then it's like the different breeds and the different gates about how they, you know, there's Tom in England. Right. Well, you know, right now in the United States, there are all kinds of associations for different kinds of gated horses and let's go back to the, say, the founding of the colonies and there were, they were, they brought horses over from England. I, they, they may have been thoroughbred type, but they're probably across to some other, maybe heavier animal, but then they did, then they, there were, there were three thoroughbred bloodlines and each one of them was, was, one half was a thoroughbred or what we would call a thoroughbred. The other, although they didn't call them thoroughbreds at the time, the other, then they were, they were bred with Arabian horses. So that, that, they developed three stallions out of that and those three stallions then were the foundation stock for thoroughbreds. But then not every thoroughbred is going to win the brace. Okay. And once that were maybe less speedy, they were, they were taken off and did other things. Some of them became just saddle horses. Some of them, some of them pulled buggies or lighter, lighter weight vehicles. And, and then those horses were crossed with other kinds of horses, Morgan horse, for instance, developed and it was a very all utilitarian horse. They have some Arabian blood, some thoroughbred blood and it could, it, it was speedy. It was, it could pull a plow, it could haul logs, which is where, what did a lot of those things all, all in one, one horse would do all those kinds of things because they were, they were like a utility vehicle, they were utility horse. And so when we get, as, as time passes, certain horses were bred to similar horses and they became a separate type of horses and sometimes they, they would be, oh, there would be enough of a standardization in the type that we would start to consider them a breed. And then within that, within breeds, certain horses would have maybe a peculiar way of walking, wasn't. And so, well, and then somebody would say, well, that's really nice, I, I like riding that horse and they would, they would find another horse that was of a similar gate or they would breed that horse to another horse and maybe the offspring might be a, have a similar gate. It was a recessive gene. So anyway, you've got all these, all these cross breedings and so forth or, or then you would breed type to type if you had enough, enough cross breeds that had a similar characteristic. And so they eventually you would have a gated horse, like a Tennessee walking horse, for instance, or a Missouri rock strata or a Rocky Mountain horse that had a particular kind of gate that was extremely comfortable to ride and those kind of horses became very popular and they're, they're especially popular right now with people who do trail riding. What about horses that are used to round up cattle and because I have to ask this because we're in the Southwest and there's cattle and there's cowboys, we have cowboys out here and I go, oh, look at that, you know, right, right now, I mean, they, they develop from the, from the thoroughbred and from Mustangs, they developed the American Quarter Horse. I mean, it took, it took a while of breeding and cross breeding for that to happen. The, the original Quarter Horse was, was rather short, maybe like 14 too and had, and it finally chiseled head. It had, it had fairly large feet. It was, it was, it also had the ability to be interested in cows or cattle. And so it was quick, almost cat-like in this movement. So if you, if you get, you can have a Quarter Horse facing, facing a herd, facing a calf that was trying to, trying to get away from it, it would, it would, it could anticipate the movement or the direction of that calf and it could, it could get there first and had that calf off and push it back into the herd. So you didn't have cattle strung out all over the place when you were, you know, trying to get them to market. So it was a very, um, utilitarian horse. It was really, um, had a lot of uses and it was a comfortable horse to ride. It was very, uh, a smart horse. So, um, but there was a, there's, there's quite a bit of dirt bread blood in Quarter Horses. And in some lines, uh, of greeting, there's maybe more dirt bread than, than in others. Um, you notice that not every Quarter Horse is the same height or, or the same heaviness. Uh, some horses, some Quarter Horses are used for, uh, roping, um, some are used for racing. Um, there's a lot of, a lot of ways they're used and within that breed are different types. Hmm. That's amazing, man. It's, it's really the world of the horse. This is cool. I think we have to do all kinds of series on horses now. Well, it's, it's more complicated than you, than, you know, person might think and you know, you opened it in the, uh, oh, Pacific Northwest, well, maybe more inland, but like Wyoming for instance, uh, Utah. Um, there are these, there were the stud horses and there's per sources that were used, um, very early on in the Indian apple. Yeah, yeah, particular markings that were, I thought, you know, seemed to be unusual, but if you look at pictures of, uh, horses from Europe back in the, uh, 16, well, 17th and 18th centuries, they were mostly done. Um, you'll see horses, whitish horses with similar markings. So they're not that unique. It was somewhere, somewhere those, those genes, all those genes are in all these horses. And I want to bring, want to breed of develops. It's usually developed because you're breeding, and you're getting, you're trying to capture recessive genes for there to be a particular, um, for particular type or particular color. So like the, the Lipses honors, it, the, I mean, oh my gosh, yeah, yeah, but would it be possible to teach another kind of horse to do what Lipses honors do? Because you know, they, they seem to be able to march and step with each other and. Yeah, well, you know, those are actually, they're, they're not, nothing's that are learned exactly because they're, they're trying to exaggerate what the horse can already, already has the capability of doing. And so, and some horses because of their confirmation are going to be more capable than others. But, but the, I mean, those are, what the Lipses honors do are basically defensive measures that, um, all horses might have the capability or the general, most horses would have the capability of doing. But, but they're, they don't, they're not, I mean, the Lipses honors has been trained and starts training very early, uh, on ground, on the ground when he's young, when he's two years old, when he, when his hammer starts training him to do some of these things and then gradually build up to, um, more complex movements, movements, movements that require more mature muscles and more mature bones. Before they can really do well. Yeah, it is amazing. Beautiful. Well, you know, this is just like doing family history. You do your DNA and you'll find out your relatives in 20 countries. Well, yeah, yeah, it's been for five, I mean, both sides, but, you know, whatever we want to say, you know, but it, it's the same thing. I mean, it, when it all, yeah, it's all spread out, you know, but so now when they try to do a thoroughbred, so a thoroughbred is like, now you've, that's the, you know, the purebred, you know, but it, yeah, almost its own species now, right? That does that even make sense? Well, it was not not a species, but yeah, it's a definite kind. Yeah. Within, within a species. Yeah. Let's see, um, the reaping it, the reaping is in so many bloodlines now, so many types of horses. And, um, that there is, you know, it, it's contributed a lot to development of a lot of different kind of breeds. And once, once a type is developed, they start breeding type type. They don't, they, they very seldom bring in outside blood again. They don't introduce new bloodlines, um, into it, into a breed where the type is already pretty well established. And do you, do you think that there, oh, sorry, go ahead. No, I was just going to, some, sometimes when, when that happens, then the breed starts to weaken because you're, you're, you're, you're, you're are breeding to bring out recessive genes. And if you keep doing that and keep doing that, keep doing it without putting in the strengthening the breed with something, something from the outside, um, you may, may start getting also recessive qualities you don't want. So what about like high-strung horses, because I've always heard, like, that tend to be high-strung, high-strung is usually a product of the way of horses handled. Oh, okay. I mean, there are hot blood horses we call them, uh, like race horses, Arabians, probably. Um, but even hot blood horses can behave themselves. But sometimes, sometimes when you show a horse or people show horses and they're supposed to be animated or they're supposed to be, you know, whatever, uh, they don't pay any attention to that. They want them to be, to look really spacey. Uh, Arabians get a, get a big, um, uh, negative, uh, from that because sometimes their handles, handlers, um, don't really handle them very well. And so they're saying, "Oh, those crazy Arabians, you know, they're always hyper," but they're really not. They don't have to be, I should say. Individuals, you know, we do see that. And generally, it's just because, uh, they've got them excited before they bring in the showroom because they've, they've been exposing them to loud noises or, uh, whip or whatever. Um, they're all kinds of deep ways that people mess up their, mess up their horses. Um, and they do it, they do it because they're, they're trying to operate on, on humans, human standards, rather than horsey standards. And, um, one, another example of that is, uh, or was, um, what Tennessee Walking Horse show people did with building up, um, they wanted to exaggerate the, the beautiful, already natural, beautiful gate that a Tennessee Walking Horse has. And so they would put weighted, uh, they would stack, uh, wouldn't, wouldn't walk. So the, the horse, and they would nail them to the shoes. And so the, the, the, the horse has this exaggerated hoof length. What looks like a hoof length. But it's just like, oh, it's like walking on high heels anyway. And, um, they don't, they don't do that anymore. So, or they would soar the horse so that the horse, you know, would hold its tail higher. They would put ginger and other things, mustard, underneath their tails. Well, they're teaming. That's what they mean. And, and, uh, but they were doing it for show and not, I mean, they were taking a nice, a nice, um, animal with, with beautiful gates and a nice, a natural tail carriage and trying to exaggerate everything so that they would stand out, uh, amongst all their other, other show horses. And they don't, they, they're breed associations. Eventually, uh, say you cannot do that. And so that is, that's not done like it used to be. Oh, that's good. I mean, who would like that? I mean, put cinnamon, right, you know, in your tail. That's not cool. Maybe that's why horses are always sniffing the other one. Did you get mustard or ginger? Yeah. Oh, really nice. You know, this is where we always end, you know, nice one. Well, no, but it's nothing. And I think to me, when you look at the images, you know, in the article and you, you really see how much horses work. And I just think we owe them like a lot. We owe the horse, you know, we respect and honor them, you know, because they've really done so much. They've, you know, and they never really asked for it. You know what I mean? Yeah. I look at that. They, uh, they really do so much. And their pin level is extremely high. I have found, um, I, uh, I had a, I had a horse that, uh, I, I was getting ready to ride. And I, uh, I wrote him about only about seven miles. It was, it was a hot, humid day. And, um, came home. And, uh, about a week later, he called it. So he's having some kind of heat gastric distress. And he had called it, you know, before. And I'd always, uh, you know, called to that and we took care of that. And he would be okay for a while. Well, about a, about a week later, he called it again. And I called that and we worked all night to try and get the horse over this collet condition. And eventually, uh, we had to put him down about three minutes before he would have died anyway. And so the vet said he wanted to, he wanted to, um, do a post op on him to see what the cause was. And so he, he said, I don't want you to be here for it. So I, I went to Dallas and he cut the horse open and came back. He said, your horse had cancer in nearly every organ. And I, I couldn't, you know, I understood what he was saying, but it was, I mean, what I think, what I'd asked the horse to do the week before, he wrote, he did seven miles, took me seven miles with no complaint at all. I felt so badly. I mean, there was no, there was no way I could have known this. Yes. I mean, when we think of what these, these animals do, it probably have, and have done for human beings, uh, as long as there has been a relationship between horses and human beings, that, um, they are amazingly uncomplaining. Yeah. They, they really, they, they're very, very strong. I mean, there's just this minor core and beauty. I mean, I just, I love seeing horses just run free and, and they're so curious. I mean, I love that, you know, we have horses in the neighborhood where we are here in Tucson and, you know, we take our morning walks and we're like, let's go see the horses and they'll see you walking down the road. Obviously, there's cars and stuff, but, and they just, they're like, oh, let's go check them out. What are they up to? You know, it's just a healthy distance. They're not our horses and, you know, yeah, I'm always one of those people like, don't get animals used to you because you never know who's coming after you. You know, I mean, next, um, and the rabbit could be, um, you know, one of the, you know, the stupid ones. Back to that one. Yeah. Well, you're, you're right there. You're right there. And we, yeah. You have to protect them. That's something that really everybody needs to be aware of because there are people out there who are unkind or, yeah, or stupid. Oh, did I say that? When, welcome to big blend radio. We may call you, you know, it's nice to make, it's nice to make friends, but you're right. You don't know who's coming, coming along and you may set some animal up for, um, something you don't, you never intended to. Yeah. When we had our horses, we really didn't like other people petting the horse. Unless we said they could. Yeah. Or you don't, it, yeah. It's, I think it's hard when you have your horses on a road where people can go and talk to them. You know what I mean? I would, we kind of put ours there. You had to come into the property to see the horses or talk to them. You know what I mean? Right. So then if they did that, then we, you know, we had a lot of snakes in Africa, man. And horses, horses are beautiful. They're always depicted as beautiful and friendly. And of course, in cartoons, they're depicted as, you know, being able to converse in English. So, um, I have run into situations where kids will come by and they, you know, they've seen the Lion King and they've seen other cartoons and where the animals are talking to each other. And they really don't grasp the fact that real animals may not, well, don't necessarily understand, make an understand certain things by your body language. But they, you know, you, you just can't do everything to them. I mean, that you think you might be able to do. And it's, it's, it's very, it's kind of a, some people have a hard time separating fantasy from reality. And that's dangerous. Yeah. Right, great. I mean, they're a big animal. Exactly. Yeah. And they don't have to. It's, it's, it's a lot of children. They don't, and they, they're not intending to do any harm, but something spooks them or they turn around and you're not ready for it. You get, you get stepped on, you know, there's one of the things that, um, that can happen. So, um, you need to have the only, if you're going to see us, if you want to see a horse, you don't have one. You've never had one. You're, you need to ask the owner first. And if you could get the horse or, or, and the owner will probably be happy to, to go with you. Uh, because most people enjoy, uh, sharing their, exactly. Yeah. They want to talk about them. And it's an education part, you know, too. Yeah. Yeah, there's an opportunity. Yeah. And then people understand and, you know, and, you know, when they walk down the road, you know, it's, they'll be, behave more. I don't know. But, you know, it's just so cool to see them. You know, you just like you, you want, you just talk to them from a distance, you know, you just go, oh, we look at that beautiful tail. Look at that big name, you know, um, it's just so funny, you know, how we all are. I have to tell you, you know what my, I, I once got a number one ribbon with my horse who, Cinnabar, who was abused before by a polo guy. He beat her up in the fable. And so she was a, you know, a mess and took a lot of carrots and we just trained her through love. And, um, it was pretty interesting because she, she just, she came through on everything really beautifully. And, um, but what we won, which wasn't a big deal for everybody, but it was a big deal for us. We came first in a fancy dress contest. I was just as a fancy, but I carried a guitar and a big flowy thingy on my head, you know, and for her to have me in a costume on her back with this big, flowy thing. And that was, and for her, I think we won, I don't know if it was at first or third. I can't remember really first place. Yeah. And, um, I felt very comfortable that way. But for her to have this flowy thing on, on her was, and for me to be not normal, you know, um, it was kind of close. Well, she was used to that. But to me, that was something interesting for her to really trust that just shows this relationship, this bond between humans and horses. Well, Victoria, I have a song for you today. Oh, good. I know, you know, you, I, this is a safe one. You never know what I might play, but this is, I, I'm sure I've played it for you before. This is Horses and Cattle. It's by Mike Mutto, and in Silver City, that, yeah, New Mexico is enchanting cowboy. And I thought we were talking about horses and cattle and, you know, cowboys. And everyone, this is off of Mike's album, Spirits Still Remain. You can go to mikemutto.com. It's M-O-U-T-O-U-X, mikemutto.com. Awesome. Following him on Facebook, he has all these nature photos he takes all the time and sometimes videos and all kinds of good stuff. But anyway, so check that out. But everyone, again, Victoria's articles in the February through April issue of Big Blend Radio and TV magazine. And you can see it also right now at blendradioandtv.com. But most importantly, go to Victoria's website. It's victoriachick.com. Thank you so much, Victoria. It's been, oh, it's always fun chatting with you. And this was another goodie. Well, you, I, we enjoy talking about horses. So this is fun for me, especially. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Well, you take care and enjoy your song. Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. [Music] Spring on the ranch and the cattle are restless. It's been dried the grass to lake road. They've knocked down a fence and now 20 are missing. We need to find them, bring them all home. But the cattle are scattered all over the place. Down the draws of the slopes and the trees. There's only one way to get them. I'm thankful for that. With horses and cowboys like me. Summer on the ranch, new calves will need Brandon. We'll gather them up in first line. It's a pretty big pasture. We've got extra men. We're all going to sleep good tonight. 'Cause the cattle are scattered all over the place. Down the draws of the slopes and the trees. There's only one way to get them. I'm thankful for that. With horses and cowboys like me. Forces and cattle, the cowboys life. It takes boat instead of man-free. The cows make you money. Horses bring pleasure together. They're all that we need. Fall on the ranch, worship in the yearlands. This is time of the year. We've loaded the trucks. The boss got a good price. The smile on his face says it's clear. 'Cause the cattle were scattered all over the place. Down the draws of the slopes and the trees. There's only one way to get them. I'm thankful for that. With horses and cowboys like me. Winter on the ranch, we're feeding the cattle using a pick-up most days. Now and then there's other work to be done. I love to hear the boss say. Well, the cattle are scattered all over the place. Down the draws of the slopes and the trees. Settle your horse and meet me back here. Today you're riding with me. When the cattle are scattered all over the place. Down the draws of the slopes and the trees. There's only one way to get them. I'm thankful for that. With horses and cowboys like me. [Music]
It’s Celebration of the Horse Day and this episode focuses on the history and art of working horses in America
