Cody picked his face up out of the dirt, grabbed his hat and scrambled for the gate. He turned and pumped his fist at the cheering crowd. They knew it too, it was for the money.
He ran his dusty hand through his thick sandy blond hair, placed his lucky black Stetson back on his head and walked through the gate. There was the iron taste of blood in his mouth. He ran his tongue around his mouth, searching for missing teeth and spat the bloodied saliva between his boots. “All present and accounted for,“ he said.
He peered between the rails at the outriders guiding the big grey Grullo stallion into the stock pens. That was some horse and aptly named, ‘Sidewinder.’ The name suited him. He was rattlesnake quick, could turn on a dime and kicked at least four feet above Cody’s head. It was like sitting at the top of a rollercoaster ride and trying to keep from falling off.
I hope someone has some pictures of the horse at it’s full extension, that would really be something to frame and put on the wall and maybe one day show his kids.
Win or lose what a great ride that was. He would never forget how that horse threw him off and face-planted him into dirt like he was a lawn dart…but not before the horn, a wide grin lit up his dirty face, not before the horn.
