Snake Eye

He was an old brown horse with a raw boned frame and a sour disposition. His head matched his body with small pig eyes, dished face and a pinched-in nose. On top of his head, set close together, were two small ears that swiveled almost 360 degrees. He had been left at Grandpa McCain's place by Brother Jones, a neighbor, who had traded for Grandpa's ranch on the Arizona Strip. Jones had borrowed a nice big white horse from Dad a couple of years before. When he finally remembered to return the horse he forgot what color it was so returned old brown Snake Eye

We were living on a little farm south of St. George at the time and Dad didn't say anything about it. This kind of dealing upset me but all I could do was grumble. Dad tried to live as the Savior taught: "Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away." And I think that Brother Jones had Dad's number.

Since we now had the old reprobate, us boys decided to put him to use. Dad fixed up a two wheeled cart with shaves for one horse to pull. From his looks we figured that Snake Eye would kick, so scrounged around to find a short piece of chain to anchor across the shaves just back of his hocks. He didn't like being a cart horse, but we were careful to keep him under control for we knew he would raise havoc if he got a chance. He furnished transportation to town and we peddled cart loads of melons to the housewives and did other little jobs with him. Us boys also transported ourselves to the various swimming holes whenever we had time.

One day Pete, George and Fred Atkin and some other boys were at our place and they wanted to go swimming. Dad wasn't home and we had completed our assigned work so I caught up old Snake Eye and hitched him to the cart. His legs had been touching the kick chain as he traveled, wearing off hair and hide, creating a small sore on each leg. The chain needed to be moved back an inch or two but that would require more work and time. I thought that he was now well broke in to pulling the cart and would behave himself like a good horse so I removed the chain and we all got in the cart and headed down the road to the juncture of the Santa Clara Creek where it empties into the Virgin River. There wasn't much of a swimming hole there, but enough water to get wet and run around naked on the sandbars.

Old Snake Eye was left tied in the shade of a tree. After a couple hours of splashing around we put on our clothes, piled in the cart and headed up the road toward home. Snake Eye must have been having evil thoughts as he stood tied to that tree. He had only traveled up the road about 50 yards when his old butt bounced up and both hind feet came back within 6 inches of my nose. I could see every crevice in the frog of his left foot. He increased his forward motion, but kept those hind feet coming our way.

Pete and one of my brothers, either Grant or Keith was on the seat with me when the action began. I was driving and leaned way back and see-sawed hard on the reins trying to get him under control, but he only became more enthusiastic about his tantrum. His butt bounced faster and his ankles snapped at the end of his legs as he kicked with all his might.

My two co-pilots tipped off the seat, down into the bed of the cart. As Snake Eye got up momentum he went off to the side of the road where the going was real rough, bouncing the cart high. There was no tail gate so all the passengers either bounced out or voluntarily bailed out. Snake Eye became so zealous about his act that he made big buck jumps along with the violent kick of both hind legs as his speed increased. Some of the bumps we hit about threw me out of the cart so I finally decided to let him have it.

I let go of the reins and rolled backward off the seat, out the back and onto the ground. Old Snake Eye was still running and bucking with the cart bouncing along behind when he went out of sight through the brush and trees.

We gathered ourselves up laughing and hollering about the excitement and funny experience we'd had rolling from that cart. We talked about that crazy old horse as we walked on up the road. Presently we found the cart stuck in a Mesquite bush. The harness had broken letting Snake free from that hated contraption. We backed it out of the entanglement and pulled and pushed it along with us.

When we got to the house, Old Snake Eye was standing out in the alfalfa patch looking our way with a baleful eye, the same as to say "I'll teach you guys to mess with me."