Mentors

[Carl Russell]

OldKat;11170 wrote:

….Wow, I wouldn’t have thought anybody on this board would have even known who Jerry Jeff is….

“Up against the wall you redneck mother…..”?????

You can’t be serious. Of course we would know JJW. At least a few of us.

Carl

[Jean]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcBOcwgb4OA

Off topic, but a good sing along!

[Mark Cowdrey]

Alright I have to pitch in. “Desparadoes” is a Guy Clark song. Tom Rush also did a very passable if somewhaat more produced version of it in the early 70’s. In the same vein, check out Guy’s “Let him roll” on that same “Old Number One” album. That said my copy of JJW’s “Viva Terilingua” has some pretty deep grooves in it! BTW, old “Jacky Jack” Walker is originally from NY state.

Mark

[OldKat]

@Mark Cowdrey 11175 wrote:

Alright I have to pitch in. “Desparadoes” is a Guy Clark song. Tom Rush also did a very passable if somewhaat more produced version of it in the early 70’s. In the same vein, check out Guy’s “Let him roll” on that same “Old Number One” album. That said my copy of JJW’s “Viva Terilingua” has some pretty deep grooves in it! BTW, old “Jacky Jack” Walker is originally from NY state.

Mark

That’s absolutely correct. He and someone, (Kris Kristofferson maybe?) also had a duet release on it. I forget about Guy Clark’s version, because the popular version (at least where I live) was the JJW one. The Highwaymen had a cover, too. I really didn’t figure anyone would recognize Guy Clark’s name. You have to be pretty much into outlaw country music to know Guy, Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Townes Van Zandt, Kinky Friedman, etc, etc.

I guess maybe these guys have / had a bigger audience than I thought they did. I didn’t think anyone outside of about 300 or 400 miles from Austin would have ever even heard of any of them. Interesting.

[J-L]

My mentor was my Dad. He never was one for really putting words to teaching and I guess I thought he never taught me much. I was wrong. He showed me a great deal even though he is a man of few words. I think what he did was get me going well enough to not kill myself and turn me loose basically.
Another guy who’s brain I pick from time to time is my uncle. He still works a team at age 80 or 82. He spent quite a little time logging up around the Pinedale area as a young man. He gave me some really good pointers throughout my life.
Like my dad he grew up using horses prior to tractors. Daily routine was to get a team caught and harnessed, milk cows and chore, eat breakfast. That’s how it is at my house still most of the time.
Lot’s of Jerry Jeff fans around the country. I saw him put a show on by himself at a little bar one time. Great show. I still like his version of Navajo Rug best of any I’ve heard. Can’t forget about Mr. Bojangles either.

[Carl Russell]

This site is awesome!! You guys rock. What a conversation this has become.

Thanx, Carl

[jen judkins]

@Carl Russell 11193 wrote:

You guys rock.

Is that a pun?

[OldKat]

@jenjudkins 11196 wrote:

Is that a pun?

That may be a lot like the answer I gave the pastor at our church when he sent me an email saying that a person, not associated with our church, wanted to donate about $5,000 for a set of (electronic) bells for our steeple. I was in a hurry to leave for a football game at the old alma mater, so I quickly typed “Sounds good to me”. He hasn’t let me forget about that double entendre.

[bradley]

I just wanted to share this story because it was a powerful experience to work alongside my grandpa this summer when he came up to visit for a week. He and my grandma and two aunts drove his Cadillac Fleetwood up from Salisbury North Carolina just in time for that first good spell of hay weather. I am one generation removed from farming but we used to go visit the old homeplace at least once a year when I was growing up and I remember riding the tractors and combine with my Papaw. But when he came up and rode on the tractor with me (horses were out for a week due to leg injury) , it just brought it all home, and I imagined how nice it would have been to have grown up on the farm with him and worked with him. Then after I had made my first windrow and proceeded my usual way, he waved me down and showed me his technique for raking that his father showed him. And boy do I miss him now.

[DraftDriver]

Hope it isn’t too late to join in this…I have two mentors..the first one is my adopted “dad” Bill Arant. Bill taught me so much as a young wet behind the ears girl who was as horse crazy as the day was long. He taught me to saddle, bridle, cinch a saddle in my sleep, and never once did I EVER see this man raise a hand in anger. He wore spurs but only touched his old Saddlebred Red with them, he sang softly under his breath when we trail rode, he was the president of the Nevada Pony Express Reride group and gave me my own 5 mile stretch on my mare Belle to ride as a “male” pony express rider and carried the mail on her, and taught me so much about riding a horse, being kind, getting into their mind to figure out why they acted or did what they did, and he gave me away at my wedding to my high school sweetheart, Mark. So many things I could say about this man, the way he hands laid on the withers of a horse, how kind and gentle he was to an equine, and how proud I was to call him when I won my first blue ribbon with my Percheron mare, Smoke. He passed away at 83 years old a year and a half ago, my heart still aches for his voice, and at times, I still have a hard time with his passing.

My other mentor, who is worthy of being as loved as Bill was, is Bob Brennan. The man has been showing horses for over 30 years, can take a group of Percherons, put them together in a hitch and win a class, he is soft spoken, he too, you won’t find lifting a hand in anger to any draft horse, is patient when I ask him what things are on a plow or a harness, is knowledgeable and has shown me that when you have a great team, you can put their trust in them and they will do the same for you. He has shown me how to handle the lines on my team, how to hitch them properly and with care, safety issues that may come up, and when I go into a class, to smile and be calm but what to know and watch for. Again, so many things I could say about this man, and I can only hope I am half the horse woman and teamster that Bob and Bill are.

[mitchmaine]

hey guys, my dad was a tractor farmer. when i decided to go into the woods with horses, he thought i’d lost my mind. (?????) hm. well, the choice was economical. a new skidder was $13,000 and a team was 1/10 that price. dad was in a nursing home in a wheelchair. his room mate arthur, twenty years older, took better care of him than the nurses. arthur worked in the woods all his life. we used to talk about it when i was in a fix. he’d say stuff like ” we used to do…” or ” i might try…”. that was the way he gave advice. anyway, my point is that none of the things he said would have made any sense unless i had an experience to compare to what he was saying. i had to break something before he could fix it for me. you have to let go of the rope yourself, before you know how warm the water is. thanks for this great website. mitch

[Anonymous]

I came upon working horses with only hopes and no experience. I had worked on an equine vet. farm for a bit and came away completely afraid of high strung horses. After learning to farm with tractors did I attempt to find out what using horse power would mean. Unsure if i could do it, I found a local person i now call a friend who showed me a little bit, but didn’t have enough work to train me. He told me to contact Paul Birdsall at Horsepower Farm in Maine. I was lucky enough to spend a full season there. From snow till snow. I returned home to Penssylvania and my friend who is also named Paul has continued to mentor me. Local Paul is in his 60’s and Mr. Birdsall is in his 80’s. The knowledge is in the older folks. Don’t be afraid to search it out.

[jac]

I was born 2nd day in January 1960 on a small dairy farm in Lanarkshire, Scotland. The heavy horse was well and truly gone by then. I was raised by my grandparents. Grandpaw on my mothers side kept a mare and got a foal most years. I followed him around from an early age and listened to his every word, “absorbing” is how I’d call it. My gran on my dads side{he hated horses}had it hard during WW1 as all her brothers were at war and she had to do all the horse work, she recalled having to stand on a bucket to put the collars on and using a stick to hook the girth under one of the geldings that was prone to kick.. Her saddest day was when the army came and requisitioned her best horses for the war and she never saw them again. When my time came to buy my 1st gelding of my own.. 19yrs old.. I realised I knew more than I thought and my years of “absorbing” had paid off.. Then I started to learn every day since and will into the future and my daughter is looking like the next generation. She shows a real interest in all stuff to do with draft horses.. I feel privelaged to have known so many old horsemen through my grandparents. The living link with the past when horse was king is disapearing each year. Grab it while you can.
John

[mitchmaine]

hey jac, there is an old story about the man who takes his problem into the machine shop and the head machinist takes his part, looks it over, hands his back, and says “it can’t be fixed”. the man looks back and says “what should i do?”. the machinist says “take it over to that kid working in the corner, he doesn’t know you can’t fix it”. and of course he does fix it. don’t underestimate good oldfashioned youth and desire. when someone really wants to know how to do something (like probably all of us here on this site) you can’t stop them from learning. it’s not so much about teaching then as it is keeping somebody alive while they learn what they want to know. happy belated ground hogs day. mid point of winter around here. were on our way out.

[jac]

Hey Mitchmaine..Thats a good example of what I ment, years of sitting with the grandparents and others from that era rubs off without you knowing it…I think thats a great tradition with the ground hog.. how acurate is the wee fella ?? We have a saying round here “We only get two seasons in Ayrshire.. Winter and June:D
John

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