Lambert, Ron

Vaquero Voodoo

1. I ride a bay gelding,
2. Figure he’s about twenty four.
3. He’s still got spunk in him,
4. And we’ve had our moments for sure.
5.  
6. There’s not much that bugs him,
7. Not motor bikes, dogs or semi rigs.
8. But we used to have a battle
9. When we had to go near pigs.
10.  
11. Now there’s a choice piece of trail
12. That I wanted to ride on more.
13. But it was close to a pigpen,
14. With five sows and a boar.
15.  
16. When we’d get close to that place
17. He’d pick up his ears.
18. And start dancing and twistin,
19. Lettin’ me know of his fear.
20.  
21. I used spur and quirt,
22. And would sweat and curse.
23. When passing that pen
24. I’d wish him dead or worse.
25.  
26. It always was a battle
27. To encourage him to go by
28. I used to start thinkin
29. Why do I even try?
30.  
31. A wrangler I know,
32. Helped me figure this out.
33. He said its cause pigs smell like bears,
34. And of this I have no doubt.
35.  
36. He said you need a fresh pig hide,
37. To put in his stall.
38. The horse will see it ain’t dangerous,
39. And he’ll pass any pig at all.
40.  
41. Well I kept that in mind,
42. For when the next pig hide came my way.
43. But the battle continued,
44. With the pigs, and the Bay.
45.  
46. Then down in Arizona,
47. A few miles north of Mexico.
48. I chanced to meet a top hand,
49. I figured he’d surely know.
50.  
51. I posed my problem to him,
52. Riding in the desert neath the sky so blue.
53. An waited with excitement,
54. For some secret Vaquero Voodoo.
55.  
56. He replied that his present mount,
57. Could just about do it all.
58. Till he saw a new Jimson weed,
59. By a post, when checkin fence last fall.
60.  
61. Well he put the brakes on
62. And looked at that thing.
63. It hadn’t been there,
64. When they’d passed last spring.
65.  
66. I held my breath,
67. For the magic I knew was hiding.
68. He just said, “I stepped off,
69. Pulled it out, and then kept on riding
70.  
71. Back home with the pigs,
72. I gave it a try.
73. First sign of fidget,
74. I got off and walked by.
75.  
76. I did this twice,
77. and on the third time.
78. He just passed without a hitch,
79. He just ignored them swine.
80.  
81. The moral of this poem,
82. And for some It’s a hard change to make.
83. Is that when you’re training horses,
84. You gotta learn when to give…and when to take.