Old-Time Trail Ride

My mother had this photo sitting on her dining-room table yesterday. I think she was showing it to our friend, Cis.

Mother used to do publicity for the Bonner County Horsemen's Assoc., which was formed sometime in the 1950s. She also took lots of pictures, and some good ones at that, including this one.

I remember things about this trail ride, held over northeast of Priest River. The Horsemen's association did a lot of similar activities, along with building a rodeo grounds on Baldy Road.

Interstate Concrete is there now, but Mother still has several photos of the construction process, all done by volunteer labor on the part of club members.

Several rodeos were held there, as were numerous big Appaloosa Horse Club shows.

In the photo above, I recognize at least three people, maybe four.

Art Sphar is leading the pack. He ran the old sale yard down on Oak and Division across from where the First Christian Church is located.

Art's daughter Bernice Wood was also a well-known and much-loved 4-H leader for years here in the county.

The rider to the left of Art is Leo Jarvis, who lived down on Boyer about a mile south of where our farm was. He liked to show horses.

From the looks of the hat, that could be Arnold Roberts riding down the hill behind Leo. I'm not sure, though, but it sure looks like the hat style Arnold always wore.

Arnold is still alive; I don't know if he's still riding, but he used to be a fixture in the Fourth of July Parade, when the Horsemen's Association was still functioning.

Behind the "alleged Arnold" is Dale Sphar with his hat tipped back. He was one of Art's sons and, of course, Bernice's brother. The Sphars, in addition to running the sale yard, traded horses.

Dale's brother Bob handled a trade with one of our horses, Ponderay's Fancy Pants, our Appaloosa stallion. If I recall correctly, Bob picked up nine horses in return for Fancy.

The deal was made with one of my dad's friends Kenneth Parent, a wrangler with whom my dad had worked in the 1930s on a 40,000-acre spread over in the Madison Valley of Montana.

I don't know who got the best end of that horse trade, but I know Kenneth was mighty happy to have that big 16-hand handsome stallion.

Back in the crowd on the left, barely visible, is a black horse with a corona. I think that might be our family friend Helen Schmidt Poelstra, riding Darkie. Coronas and sheepskin nosebands were popular at the time.

Mother remembered yesterday how everyone picked out their materials and colors (red and white or green and white, etc.) and sewed their little yarn puffballs around the edges of a saddle blanket for their homemade coronas.

If that's Darkie, as I suspect, he was the horse I rode when Mother and I would ride to town from our North Boyer farm. Our destination was Jack's Lockers where we'd pick up some frozen packages of meat and then ride back home.

It was on one of those trips that Darkie's saddle cinch was loose. I started drifting to the side, but I kept my mouth shut cuz I might have been told to be quiet for some reason or another.

When Mother finally turned around, she saw me still sitting in the saddle at almost a 90-degree angle from Darkie's back. I think the cinch got tightened.

The picture certainly conjures up a lot of old memories. I can remember the three of us kids riding in a horse-drawn wagon that day.

What I remember the most was all the hot chocolate I consumed at the house while we waited for the trail riders to come back to the ranch. For the life of me, though, I have no idea whose ranch it was.

Definitely a "good ol' days" picture, but I'm happy to say that the "good ol' days" seem to be coming back in these parts.

I've just finished my series of stories for the summer edition of Sandpoint Magazine about horse interest here. It was truly one of the more fun experiences I've had for a writing assignment.

Based on the people I've met, the people I already knew and the wide variety of options, I can say with great confidence that horse interest has once again exploded in this area.

I don't know if we'll see trail rides like this with nearly 75 riders again or like the old Pend Oreille Trail Rides, put on by the Litehouse Hawkins family years ago, attracting as many as 250, but I can say that the trails around this area are getting used, and riders are having a blast.

The best part for me is that I can cinch up my own saddle, I don't have to ride in a horse-drawn wagon, and I can think about the hot chocolate at the END of the trail.

It's a good life. Of course, it is any time you can saddle up a horse and head down a trail.