Kids on a Ranch

From the Foreword by Everett Ashurst about growing up on an Arizona cattle ranch.

I guess the thing that is the best about being a little kid on a cow outfit is that your biggest dreams are right outside the bedroom window, and your hero is sleeping in the room next to yours...

...It really is hard to communicate how bad, or even why, I wanted to get to go with the crew when they trotted out on a February morning. I remember my dad was breaking this one colt who was unbelievable hard headed. He had about 25 rides on him, I suppose, when we left one morning to gather some cattle east of the house. Seems like it was probably 30 degrees with a stiff breeze, and maybe a little snow on the ground; and about a mile above the house, we stopped and Dad got off to get a gate. After five or six of us rode through, he shut it. When he got about halfway on Apache, the horse spun away from him and proceeded to buck him off. If I had been told that morning that I couldn’t go help, even if I could eat anything I wanted, play anything I wanted, or watch anything I wanted, I would have been absolutely disappointed. Not only did I want to be out there at daylight, I couldn’t wait until they would let me ride a horse that would try to throw me off in the snow. And just about every kid I have ever seen who grew up on a ranch felt the same way.

Ed Ashurst is known for spinning tales and telling his stories while making the listener see, feel, smell and taste the experiences as if they were really there. Kids on a Ranch is no exception.