Ole #5

Bucky's death hit everyone who knew him hard.

He was one hell of a cowboy - larger than life - but we can't overlook the woman who tamed him, Old #5.

As Bill mentioned in his Bucky post, Bucky had a rather cavalier attitude toward women when he arrived in Colorado. He'd been married four times and wasn't really looking for #5. He came off as quite a charming cad, so when he started dating the future Mrs. Bucky, who we all loved we knew we had to get a message across.

One of the wranglers (I'm fairly certain it was Ginger) had come up with the nickname "LeBloncheck" for her. Bucky, being footloose and fancy free, was chatting up a couple of women before he started bringing the future Mrs. Bucky around. We liked her. She was sweet and hard working, and even if we couldn't remember her name right off the bat (hence the nickname "LaBloncheck" (the blond chick)), we all took to her. And we knew Bucky's reputation. There was no way we were going to let him break the future Mrs. Bucky's heart that summer, so when things started to look serious (and Bucky had left the other ladies in the dust), we talked Beel into setting Bucky straight.

Beel called the Livery one afternoon, pretending to be her dad, and demanded to speak to Bucky. Now, by this time we knew the future Mrs. Bucky by name and adored her, we didn't actually know her last name, so we had Beel fake it. When Bucky got to the phone, Bill identified himself as "Mr. LaBloncheck" and demanded to know what Bucky's intentions were with his daughter. Bill did such a great job of putting Bucky on the defensive that he didn't even recognize Bill's voice at first. Bucky sputtered and stammered for a few minutes before Bill's laughing gave him away.

We all had a good laugh at the joke and Bucky played a long, but he was ... quieter ... than usual. About an hour later, he walked out of the office into the livery yard and exclaimed, "Cervantes!" We looked at him, confused, until he explained that he knew her last name was Cervantes, not LaBloncheck. He was much relieved to remember her last name and resumed being his normal, boisterous self.

The thing is, Mrs. Bucky is a badass. She had to be to put up with that man. I suspect wives #1-4 were expecting more of Bucky than he was willing to give. Old #5, well, he met his match with her - she took none of his shit - and he adored her for it. As Bill said, she stuck around longer than his first four wives combined.

There's a saying, "behind every successful man is a woman", and that certainly seemed to be the case with Bucky and Mrs. Bucky. She kept their life and business straight. While Bucky was the gregarious front of the business, whom everyone remembers, Mrs. Bucky was quietly working to keep everything on track. She worked circles around Bucky (and most others, actually). One season, while Bucky was managing the livery in Estes, she was our Barn Boss and she was excellent. I loved working for a boss who could do everything she asked her employees to do; there was no "I'm the boss" attitude from her. Yes, she was our boss, but we all respected her because she was fair and pulled her own weight. She spoiled me for all other Barn Bosses, which made the one that followed her even more difficult to deal with. (He was quite the asshat - so much so that Mom and Bill had him fired and run off the property one night, but that's a whole different story.)

She meets every challenge head-on and gets things done. There's this innate confidence about her that is very empowering to those around her. You meet Mrs. Bucky and you know that this is a woman who will figure it out. There is no hand-wringing in her life. There is shit that needs to be done and she's going to get it done.

Mrs. Bucky was here just a couple of weeks ago and as I watched her unhitch her trailer at my place, using a monkey wrench because her hitch motor had gone out, it dawned on me exactly how much of a badass she is. This is a woman, who just six weeks earlier had lost her husband to cancer after caring for him by herself for four months, and who has a 15 year-old son to care for, along with her ranch ... this woman, who has every reason in the world to be curled up in a fetal position sobbing, was standing in front of me taking care of business. Shit needed to be done, so she was doing it. The motor went out and instead of feeling sorry for herself, she figured out a way to do what needed to be done.

I'm awfully lucky to get to call her a friend.



Lyrics

Miles "Bucky" Buckley

If you've read my book, you've read about Bucky. He's one of the only characters that didn't get a "stage name". And when I say "character", I mean it. Bucky rode into our lives as the livery's Barn Boss during my parents' second season at the lodge, and quickly became a part of our family, one that we're missing so very much right now.

I was thrilled to hear from Bucky back in January and knew our horses couldn't go to a better place to finish their training. Bucky was looking forward to seeing the horses, and I was looking forward to getting to see him and Mrs. Bucky. Since they moved their to Arizona a million years ago, we only got to see them on occasion.

The night before we were supposed to leave for Arizona, the truck broke, which delayed our plans. Two days before Mom and Bill were going to leave with the horses, they got a phone call from Mrs. Bucky. He had been diagnosed with cancer and it wasn't a good time to take on three new horses. I firmly believe everything happens for a reason (though I'll be damned if I can figure out the reason Bucky ended up with cancer), so I think that the truck breaking down and delaying our trip was for a reason. Unfortunately, that reason was because of Bucky's health.

He was larger than life and lead a life few would believe. Everyone who met Bucky felt like he was their new BFF in moments, but he had a knack for dazzling people with stories of his life without ever letting them "in". Few people actually knew Bucky.

While I wrote a few stories about him in my book, I didn't do him justice, just like I'm not doing him justice right now. There's just so much to Bucky, so many facets that it's impossible to pare it down and put it to paper.

Lots of people went crazy over the movie "Unbranded", in which a group of guys rode their horses from the Mexican border to the Canadian one. I enjoyed the movie, but when I walked out, I looked at Mom and said, "Yeah, but Bucky was way more cowboy." She knew what I meant. One season, Bucky decided to ride from the Mexican border to his job in Allenspark. Alone. Just him and his two green-broke horses. One to ride, one to pack. He didn't have a support team, out scouting the trail for him. He didn't have GPS or a cell phone in case something happened. He had himself and his horses, and by God, he made it. Every time he'd get near a town, he made sure to call the lodge to let us know his progress.

He was diligent about keeping a "journal" of his trip via tape recorder and I started hounding him the minute he thawed out to give me the tapes to transcribe. The tapes were the last thing on his mind once his got off his horse, and over the course of the years, they've been lost.

After this trip, he did not ride a horse the entire season :)

We were all stunned when we got the news that he lost his battle with cancer and it has taken some time to process. He came into my kids' lives when they were young and impressionable, and I'm forever thankful that they got to have a "real deal" cowboy in their lives.

I asked the kids to write up a memory of Bucky for this post. Digger is struggling as much as I am to come up with something, but Ashinator and Monster were able to put a few words together.

From Ashinator:

When I think of Bucky, there isn't one big story that pops out at me, I think of all the little moments over the years. I think of him sitting at the bar drinking with Papa, laughing at some dirty cowboy joke that went over my 12 year old head. I think of watching him with the horses, wranglers, and guests at the livery across the street. I remember hoping and wishing he'd say I could tag along every time he went out for a ride. I think of the paintings of him on horseback hanging in the hallways. Or him taking the time to help me get better at riding and understanding horses. I think of that story we all love to tell about how he rode across several states on horseback, just because he could. Bucky was a cowboy through and through and one who made you feel special for knowing him- even when he teased you, which was often. But mostly, when I think of Bucky, I think about how lucky my family and I are for having had him in our lives.

Monster shared this one:

I remember one year I was working at the lodge and he kept teasing me because my hair was long and cowboys shouldn't have hippy hair and he drove me to Estes paid for my my haircut, bought me lunch, and paid me $50 to do it. lol Bucky was definitely one of a kind and the only real cowboy I've ever met in my life. He was a hell of a guy! Sitting at the lodge with him and grandpa while they teased each other and listening to Bucky's cowboy tales were one of the highlights of my childhood.

I've been struggling with this post, because writing it brings a finality to Bucky's death, and I'm not ready for that. However, the fact is, he's gone and left a young widow and son, along with his adult children. You see, it's easy for me to just pretend that he's still being ornery down in Arizona, since I only saw him once a year anyway.

Rest in Peace, Cowboy. We miss you.



Lyrics here.

One More Sleep

In approximately 12 hours, we'll be loading up the horses and headed to warmer pastures.

If you've read my book, Tales from the Trails (a little shameless self-promotion), then you've "met" Bucky. He's a real-deal cowboy who is doing what he loves with his wife and son by his side. Long before the movie UnBranded came out, Bucky decided to ride his green horse from the Arizona border up to his "summer job" in Allenspark, so he loaded up two horses - one to ride, and one to pack - and set out. This was long before GPS and cell phone coverage everywhere. He didn't have a "support crew". He'd call and check in every few days on his trip, and he always had a hell of a story when he'd call.

He and his wife are two of the best Barn Bosses I've ever worked for, so when he suggested I take the horses down to their place, I jumped all over it. I know there are a lot of people who look down on trail "nags", but I have to tell you, those nags are some of the best trained horses I know. They might not know a lot of fancy dressage moves, but they are solid mounts. The opportunity that Bucky and Mrs. Bucky are giving the horses can't be beat.

Our paperwork is all in a row, the hay nets are full and ready to be hung in the trailer and the horses are ... intrigued. They all got very excited today when I started prepping the trailer. They got even more excited when I went into their pen to fill the hay bags, and Skeeter was beside herself when I took the halters off of the fence.

Where are we goin', Mom?

Yikes! These had to come into the mudroom to thaw.

I hope they are as excited tomorrow about the trailer as they were this morning, otherwise it can be a really stressful start to the trip. I don't foresee any problems whatsoever, and any problems that might come up will be solved with a honey/oat granola bar.

Though the horses don't know where they are going, I'm sure they'll be glad to go some place where they don't look like this in the mornings:

Miss Pearl

Miss Skeeter

When you get a chance, check out their temporary new home (YES, they are coming back home to us in May) at Blue Sky Ranches.

Preparing for a Grand Adventure

We haven't said much, because things are just now coming together, but if all works out the horses will be going on a Grand Adventure and we are crazy excited about it.

In January, when Mom and Beel were headed to pick up Alloy, our friend Bucky messaged me and told me to put my horses on the trailer down to his place. Of course, it was way too late to do that when he messaged me, but it did plant the seed.

The Mustangeers need wet saddle blankets, and a lot of them. Bucky runs a dude ranch out of southern Arizona. He's going into his busy time and short on horses. Mom and Beel talked it over with Bucky and his wife to see if they were serious. We were certain they were because Bucky never says anything he doesn't mean, but before we put the horses on a trailer his direction, we wanted to double check. (And we thought it would be a good idea to run it by Mrs. Bucky before we showed up with three extra mouths to feed.)

Turns out this is a mutually beneficial agreement and the horses will become "snow birds" in a week or so, which brings us back to the vet visit.

I was a bit worried about catching Copper, because he's either really, really easy to catch or a complete ass - there is no in-between with him. I decided to catch him first instead of giving him a chance to get upset when I took the girls out one by one. I also decided to stack the deck in my favor and went into the pen with his very favorite brush. He can be a brat, but he's a sucker for a good brushing. He was a breeze to catch, which I took as a good omen.

The vet asked if it would be okay to sedate the horses. At first, I was hesitant, because they were just getting vaccinated and they've always done great for him, but he explained that it was a "needle heavy" visit, so I agreed to sedation.

Copper is such a lightweight.

Pearl wasn't excited, but got over it.

3 Stoned Mustangeers

Just hanging out, enjoying their buzz

The vet visit went beautifully. They were saints, even before the sedative, but the drugs made the visit go much faster. They got a four-way, plus rabies, plus strangles and blood pulled for their Coggins. Once their blood work comes back clean, we'll be one step closer to getting them to Bucky's Boot Camp for Lipid Enriched Equines.

After the sedative started wearing off, Skeeter decided to tell everyone what happened at the top of her lungs. The neighbor horses got a blow-by-blow recitation of her vet visit, and I'm sure they were thrilled.

This morning, I looked out the bedroom window and saw this ...

In case you can't see through the fence and feeder, Copper and Pearl are lying in their hay while eating it. They're taking full advantage of their post-vaccines sick day. Turds.

Skeeter made a point to come out of the shed to show me she was a good girl and Copper jumped up once he realized he'd been busted lying in his hay. Pearl didn't give a single damn and continued to eat breakfast in bed. Brat.