The following is a “tale” from the memoirs of Earl Trousdale titled “Tall Tales” from the Old Timer. Earl spent his entire life in Carlin and was the mayor. We will be sharing with you some of his stories. Enjoy! All spelling and grammatical anomalies are the product of the author and he requested they not be changed.
When I was a boy, I lived on the ranch at the west end of town where the Joneses live now. That was the Linebarger ranch.
At about age fourteen, I owned three horses, two mares (mustangs) and a welch pony, named Jumbo. Jumbo was a strawberry roan and he was mean and ornery. I used to ride him to town and then, not wanting to bother with him, I’d “con” some kid to ride hi, (all kids wanted to ride him), and of course, Jumbo would go home with that kid trying to rein him and turn him around. I was fair, I always told whoever rode him that if the pony too him to the ranch then he had to unsaddle him and turn him into the pasture. What a racket!
One of my two mares was a bald-face black that my mother bought me for my birthday. She bought it from an old cowboy who made his living catching mustangs, breaking them to ride, then selling them to ranchers as he travelled through the country.
This mare, I named her Shanghi, was real spooky, snorting and shying at every little piece of paper blowing in the wind or anything else that moved. I enjoyed riding her. She at least had some “life” to her—not like Grandpa’s horses that didn’t want to leave the coral and had to be hit with reins to get them out of a walk.
Slowly but surely I trained that mare. Remember I was only fourteen. I “trained” her to run fast and furious (big deal—she was a mustang and that’s all she knew anyway)—I “trained” her that a jerk on the reins meant to rare up and then run like hell. I saw this in the cowboy movies and thought it was the only way to ride. She was mine and I loved to ride her.
One day, Mrs. Layton and my mother decided to go horseback riding. Mrs. Layton rode one of my Grandpa’s horses, and my Mother rode “Shanghi”! They rode at a walk enjoying the nice day but after awhile “Shanghi” got a little nervous, after all she was used to running. Well, Mother jerked up on the reins, the mare rared up, Mother screamed and lost her teeth, the mare took off running with Mother hanging on for dear life. I saw the whole thing-I rolled on the ground with laughter—I’m sorry to say—if it had killed her, I couldn’t stop laughing. You should have seen her when she went by—I know Ill never forget. Anyhow, every thing turned out all right, except I got holy hell! Mother never rode my horse again. I wonder why?