Top Hands

                                                                  Top Hands 

                                                                        by

                                                                 Mike Capron

My good friend tells me that through the years he has always tried to go where the best men worked for the best outfits. He wanted to be known for his ability and wanted to learn from the best. He said that it was never easy working with these outfits.  The working conditions were never considered, the personal comforts were not available. Everything you needed was right here. Men were lean and their horses tough. Words were chosen and  saved for when needed.    He made some good horses and gathered lots of tough cattle , he looked forward to the challenges of tough horses and roughish  cattle.  He considered it a privilege to have a job. 

He said his daddy had told him that learning to do a goof job would always pay off. Sometimes that isn’t always true he said. I got fired for roping a cow when she run off and I did it right, waited for the right time and did it quick, tied her to a tree and got fired for it. The boss wasn’t there but the word got to him that I had roped a cow. The boss gave him his check and told him we don’t rope on this outfit. 

Another time a friend who was the wagon boss on a big ranch told me he got fired for doing a good job, but the owners just didn’t like him. They said I did a better job than any body had done in the past, but they just didn’t like me. And they fired me.

Hard to understand the difference between right and wrong sometimes ………??????