Not too many days ago I was swapping stories with my favorite Uncle and Aunt and asked their advice as I often do.

Now before I continue this story there is one thing you should know.  My Aunt and Uncle practically raised me and I credit them for teaching me much of what I know about horses.

My Aunt and Uncle are the kind of people that make up camp fire stories.  They are legends.  Truly.

They’ve been the character inspirations for stories told by Cowboy Bard, Waddie Mitchell.  They’ve influenced the cowboy art of William Matthews.  They’ve ranch bossed the big ones….like The Ocatillo and the King Ranch.  They’ve managed ranches for big corporations and even John Wayne.  They’re the real deal. 

Like characters out of the 1800’s they’ve lived their lives ranching and cowboying.  Eighty percent of their lives have been spent bunking in cabins without electricity or running water.  They take to the mountains and live months in just a ‘Mountain Teepee’ and the clothes on their back.

At seventy three and seventy one, they still swing a leg over a horse.  In fact, when my Uncle turned seventy-three this month I called to wish him Happy Birthday. 

“What are you doing to celebrate such a milestone?” I asked.

“Well….nothing much different.  I saddled up this morning and gathered 400 strays and your Aunt Taffy made me a real nice lunch.”

Yep.  That’s what I’m shootin’ for!  Still riding and punchin’ cattle at seventy-three!

My Uncle’s mentors include a man he regulary brands with.  An ol’ cowboy, 84 years old…who still rides his horse every day and brands his own cattle.

“You are only as old as you feel.” is some of the best advice my dear Aunt and Uncle have given me.  In their seventies, their eyes still sparkle and their  footsteps are still youthful.  But by today’s standards, they’re salty ol’ individuals and I take every oppportunity I can to learn from them.

So on this visit, which I greatly enjoyed, my Uncle gave me some parting wisdom in answer to my questions, “What’s one of the horse industries greatest advancements?”

You see we’d spent the better part of two days going over training philosophies, bits, spurs, cow camp stories, mishaps and horsemanship.  We’d talked about clinicians from Ray Hunt to Brian Neupert, Pat and Linda Parelli and everything in between. 

I’d absorbed their opinions with every once of brain matter and written quite a few of their ideas down.  They make a living on the back of a horse and I can only hope to be as artistic as they are when I sit my butt in the saddle.

“Your Aunt started to go through the ‘change of life’” My Uncle said.  “And being out packin’ is a lot of hard work.  So when we sleep, we sleep.  About four months of your Aunt throwing off the covers and yellin’ “Ahhhh!  it’s HOT!” I had just about had it.  That’s when she started doing her research.

My Aunt is a regular Dr. Quinn.  She knows her herbs!

“She started concocting her remedies but nothing was working and both of us were getting frustrated.”

I listened with rapt attention.  My Aunt once healed me after a horse had bitten through 1/2 my neck.  I thought I would be disfigured but her herbal compress applied every day for 3 weeks had healed my wound and today I don’t even have a scar.  I couldn’t wait to hear what she’d found.  The change of life is in my future after all.

“There’s this stuff they make…some doctor formulated called progesterone cream.”  My Uncle wiped his mustache, something he does just before he says something you really want to remember.

“This stuff saved our marriage.”

Now that’s profound!  They’ve been married 53 years!

“And I gotta tell ya.  If I ever meet that man I am going to give him a kiss!”

Now mind you, my Uncle’s old school.  He has some very macho ideas about man to man relationships so this really surprised me.

“But only on the cheek.”  And he gave me that wink that told me he was very serious but full of mischief at the same time.  The ol’ twinkle of the eye that relayed his strength and wisdom.

“And that’s the most important invention I can think of ’cause your Aunt and me can still take off for th hills and BOTH of us can stay warm at nigh!”

Yep, the wisdom of a salty ol’ cowboy.

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