Pat called from the Roadhouse to say she was bringing guests home. I got a room ready, but didn't know who was coming. It turned out to be a guy named Kenny and his wife, Olivia. Kenny is a Dineh natural horseshoer who also does horse chiropractic, and is also a medicine man! Dineh is the word that Navajos call themselves, because the white man named them Navajo and they don't want to use it. For instance the word, Sioux, is actually a dirty word . . . I'm not sure in what language. So, Native Americans today call themselves differently than in the past.
Kenny was cool! When he got here, it was almost dark, but he and Pat went out to the corrals and he checked all the horses feet and told Pat how she could improve on the foot trimming. On Cisco, he pointed to a bone sticking up from his back, and said he needed an adjustment! He did it, right there. And after that Cisco followed him around like a little puppy dog.
The next morning, he started working on Chaco. Chaco's feet needed more work, so he showed Pat how they should be trimmed. Pat introduced Kenny to the electric trimmer, and after using it for awhile, Kenny really liked it! Pat gave him a spare one before they left.
But, while they were here, I held Chaco's rope while Pat worked on his feet the way Kenny had told her to. Chaco was uncomfortable because Kenny and Olivia were in the corral, and Chaco isn't good with strangers. He broke away from me and ran to the other side of the corral. I went to get him, but this time Pat told me to stand on the outside of the corral. She wrapped the lead rope around a bar of the corral, and told me to hold it. Chaco went ballistic, and pulled back on the rope. I tried to hold on, but my fingers got caught between the fence and the rope. Then, Pat tied Chaco to the fence, and I left to wash my fingers off with soap.
Boy, did it ever hurt. The rope and fence squished one of my rings and I had to cut it off with wire cutters, because my fingers were swelling. It hurt, but oh well, the fingers will heal. At least they didn't get broken . . . that could have easily happened.
I was going to ask Kenny if there was any way I could become his apprentice as a medicine woman. But, after the fence thing happened, I decided it wasn't meant to be. Pat said he will be coming back and giving a horseshoeing clinic. When she was asking him, a hawk flew right over their heads. Kenny said that was a very good sign!
Later in the afternoon, after Kenny and Olivia left, John and Pat and Stefan and I piled into the jeep to go to a barbecue at a neighbor's house . . . about forty-five minutes away! They have three horses, and Pat and Stefan and Jane rode from their house to the barbecue site. I drove in the truck with John and Don.
The barbecue site was awesome! It was an old sheepherder's hut or something that had been completely redone and added to. It was a very cool place. They had found pottery sherds and flint and arrowheads all around there. After the barbecue, Pat thought I should ride back. I heard her tell Jane that I was a good rider, but had no confidence. The confidence part is definitely true, I hope the good rider part is true! But when I went out to the corral to get the horses, the mosquitoes just about ate me alive. I didn't want to have to deal with a new and different horse, and swat mosquitoes at the same time. So, I gave Pat my sweatshirt, and she rode back . . . almost in the dark . . .. It was a nice outing.
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