GEE GEE
By Mark J. Carter
I have owned some of the best horses anyone could have.
A pinto mare named Glamour Girl and called Gee Gee was perhaps the one
I remember the best. I acquired her from a horse trader named Mike Crowell.
When we first moved to Montana, I had
heard that Mike had a beautiful four year old, one half Arab
and Quarter horse
mare, so I went out to see him. The mare was truly the best looking horse
I had ever seen. She had a young colt that looked a lot like her at her
side. At that time you could buy the best cow horses for a hundred to
two hundred dollars. I was quite taken back when Mike told me he wanted
four hundred dollars for the pair. I knew I had to have them so I wrote
him out a check for the four hundred dollars which he hesitated to take.
That was the best deal I ever made for a horse.
Gee Gee was gentle but spirited. She was always eager to
go but easily controlled. I used to ride her with just a halter. She had
a running walk and after riding her for a while I hated to get on one
of the other horses. She was a great cutting horse. She was quick and
watched a cow. Beth
loved to ride her because she traveled so smooth and was easy to handle.
She was just in a class by herself. We kept the colt for a year and he
developed a tumor in his back and died. I used to ride Gee Gee hunting;
she never seemed to tire no matter how long the day.
Once I had her hunting up Taylor's fork in the Gallatin
Canyon. I got excited shooting at some elk and dropped the reins not taking
time to tie her up and she got spooked and ran off over into a deep canyon.
My hunting partner Max Lowe and I hunted for her all that day until dark
and again the next day and couldn't find her. That following evening a
dude ranch sent word up that they had her in their corral. Somehow she
had made her way down threw a maze of rough canyons and came out on the
highway and was headed for home sixty miles away.
I brought her with us when we moved to Ten Sleep, Wyoming.
We raised several colts from her. All of them except one were good and
a lot like their mother. They were easy to handle, had the same running
walk and eager to go. I kept Gee Gee until she was twenty-three years
old. As she started to fail one day I saw her shivering from the cold.
I couldn't stand to see her suffer so I shot her and drug her up on a
high hill behind the ranch. Just as I believe people have spirits, I believe
horses have also. I can see her with her mane flowing and running in the
wind waiting to be resurrected.
