Cranberry Roan

                                                                                                                  Cranberry Roan 

                                                                                By

                                                                          Mike Capron

I sure am not much on Cranberries and this is how I felt about this new horse I had acquired. He showed up in a trade and I tried to cull him out of the deal, but he stayed just like cranberries at the Thanksgiving meal.  He was gentle and very useable if you didn’t want to do it very fast. Very gentle to shoe but heavy to hold up his foot.  He wasn’t going to fight you any, but you had to do all the work while he laid on you.  His back fit a saddle much like a round bale of hay. I had a man riding him who needed a gentle horse for the day and Cranberry just fit the bill.  But this gentleman didn’t have a saddle that fit Cranberry and no breast collar, so when he had to climb up a steep bank out of a cut bank draw, he and his saddle slid backwards right off Cranberries back. They landed unharmed still sitting in the saddle in the bottom of the draw. Cranberry just stopped at the top of the cutback and waited for him to climb to the top with his saddle. Another time an inexperienced rider, mounted on Cranberry decided to rope a neighbor’s cow. Cranberry managed to get close enough for this young cowboy to get the cow roped, but his saddle was not tight enough to hold the cow tied on and the saddle and cowboy went right over Cranberry’s head. Cranberry and the young cowboy were not skinned up at all, but the saddle was skinned up pretty good until it finally lodged up in some mesquite and stopped the cow. The young cowboy trotted up and caught his saddle being drug by the cow and he had no problem cutting his rope that was tied to the horn on his saddle, where it was hung up in the mesquite.  Of course the cow run off and he managed to pack his saddle back to where Cranberry was standing there eating grass where he shed the saddle and cowboy.

 I learned a lot from Cranberry. I sure didn’t want to use him any but I had some people show up that just loved him.  I guess we all have our place in life.