Who needs boots when a girl's got Shoes...

Famous Shoes, staring out over the wash he just galloped...

I was working "back East" in Maryland, spending a free weekend visiting friends and driving on familiar roads in Northern Virginia, when my phone rang. It was a dear friend whose first question was "Do you want another gelding?" A couple years before, she'd sent me a most amazing Arabian gelding (one of my absolute favourite horses ever). Given his successful transition from show ring to mountain trail, she offered to send us another. I drove out the next weekend to her fabulous farm in Rappahannock County where she introduced me to a smallish bay Arab gelding with a stripe and a snip, and three white socks. Registered as "Afire Krewe", she affectionately called him "Krewby".

Farewell Virginia! I am heading west...

We took a test spin around the indoor, and he was fabulous. I laughed, telling Jen he certainly made it easy to pet him as his head was up and his neck almost in my lap. On my way back to Maryland and my hotel, I began thinking of this lively little horse's Hideout Name. 

When horses came to us without knowing their name, I just named them - Kachina, Mickey Free, Belle Starr, South, Ike among others. However, when I knew their names, I tried to make their Hideout names similar enough to shorten the time it took them to learn their new appellation. Some were easy - Hope became Hopi, Sada became Naja, Lizzie became Lozen. Some were completely different - Elvis became Wyatt, Sonny became Washoe, Ragtail became Yaqui. All the horses who came to us were special and unique, so naming them appropriately was important. A great deal of thought, not a little research, and maybe some magick went into the name change (see https://asthegateswings.blogspot.com/2020/10/and-they-call-wind-mariah.html for an example), so whomever this self-assured little Arab was to be at Hideout Ranch was critical.

Everyone who came under the crossbars knew immediately what weight the novel and miniseries "Lonesome Dove" carried with Craig. The characters were vibrant, real, riveting - and some of them had amazing names. Most of the cattle bore Lonesome Dove names, but I could never find the right entity to wear the name "Famous Shoes", who was the Kickapoo tracker who appeared in the "Comanche Moon" installment of Larry McMurtry's saga (perfectly portrayed by Cherokee actor Wes Studi - more about that later...).

So, "Afire Krewe" became "Famous Shoes". And believe me, those Shoes fit him perfectly. 

My friend had sent Shoes west because he decided one day the show ring was not for him anymore, and he wanted a different job. Unlike Blue Duck who got some time to acclimate, we just started taking Shoes out. He was quick both to learn and to move, unrestrainedly goofy, and great fun. He would march along the trail with his tongue squeezing out the right side of his mouth. He never spooked or shied, just went forward wherever we pointed him. 

I loved riding him. There was so much power in that little horse. So much joie de vivre. Shoes loved going out, going forward, being in the world. We had some schooling to do. Shoes thought leg meant fast, and more leg meant faster. Took a little time, but he settled into his new life as a trail pony with the same flair and aplomb he undoubtedly displayed in the show ring. 

When I took him out, we'd be up behind Craig and Shoes would keep up a steady stream of chatter (well, I would for him, but you understand), pestering Craig and making him laugh. Craig never rode him, but he loved his little "squirrel in a horse suit". 

Shoes could be a bit "high headed", but he'd spent years in the show ring competing in a variety of disciplines including the high-stepping Saddle Seat. He automatically fell into that pace when he would get excited - or behind - and it took some effort to convince him he could relax and just stroll along the mountain trails, snatching at tall desert grasses or chattering at his Dad. Famous Shoes wasn't necessarily a "guest horse", but there were a few who spent their stays here with Shoes out on trail.

We had a family of four visit from Wales for several days. The mother, son, and daughter were riders - eventers, I believe. The father was being a sport - though Ike did give him a completely new perspective on horses and riding. 

The young man, we gave to Yaqui - who thought teenage boys were the greatest invention ever. Most likely, Mom rode Cholo or Bascom, and the daughter, who really was a talented and bold rider, we let try different horses during their stay. Well, she wanted to try Famous Shoes before they left. At breakfast the morning of their last ride, I made her this offer, "Tell you what. You ride Kachina today, and I'll ride Shoes. Then at lunch, we'll switch."

Her face said it all.

We went to White Tail and everyone enjoyed a lovely canter up from one of the many washes up the gentle slope toward the gate through which we continued on our journey around some of Southeastern Arizona's fabulous landscape. We lunched in a grove at the base of a long road coming down from the grasslands to a huge, wide wash, winding through the lowlands. As we finished up our mid-trail snack, I smiled and said, "Let's get this tack switched," and her face lit with the glow of a thousand Christmas lights.

We got her settled on the impish Arab first, then Kachina looked at me sideways as I stepped into the stirrup from the tree stump. Smirking, I settled into my own saddle and watched as our young Welsh eventer tried on those Famous Shoes.

 

After we made our way through a shallow wash, past the 300-year old Arizona Live Oak Craig always said he thought Geronimo knew, I stopped and turned Kachina, waiting for everyone to catch up. I looked at our girl and asked, "Ready for a canter?"

Her eyes lit to an even greater wattage, and she nodded in some measure of wonder. 

"Heels down and sit deep on him," I advised and, legging 'China around, we lifted off. A few strides across the grasslands and a startled voice shouts "Oh, s&$%!" as Shoes does his big show-ring canter right by the rest of us. She sat him fine, but didn't expect so much power in that little bay Arab. The look on her face - the excitement, the joy, the wonder of a horse-girl who realises just what she is sitting on said more than any words could.

It was great fun and such a fabulous ride to bring an amazing week to a reluctant close. Since I rode him so often, I never got to see him in action. Seeing him cantering on the flat, eating up the desert floor was watching poetry in motion. My breath caught and there were chills...

Customarily, when guests arrived at the ranch we would walk them through the pastures, introducing them to the horses and watching the ensuing interactions. Then, Craig and I would confer over coffee and decide which horse would escort which guest through the mountains for their stay. On the rarest of occasions, we would have to switch horses, but our batting average was solid, reliably in the high 900s. 

However, sometimes a person opened a gate and a particular horse would walk right into their heart, and a partnership was forged.

Anne from Denmark and Famous Shoes shared just such a partnership. From the first time she slipped her boot into the stirrup and swung her leg across his back, they were a team.

 

 

We were at White Tail on a warm, bright blue sunshiny day, and the group of us were down in the wash. Blue Duck and I were up front, near Craig in the lead, and Anne and Famous Shoes were perhaps a couple places behind me, in the middle of the pack, as it were. We lifted off into a lope. As we pounded around bends and dodged branches, as Blue Duck gained speed, I heard Anne call out brightly, "Excuse us!" I looked around to see Anne, with a megawatt smile to rival any smile of pure joy, move Famous Shoes to the outside and they both giggled as they flew past. 

And that was but one of the giggly, squiggly, utterly wiggly rides Anne and Shoes shared...

 

 

Cuddles with our pony...

 

I designed this to go on a coffee mug for Anne's birthday...

 

Riding with an Australian family whose youngest girl redefined firecracker, Shoes bounded up the hill out of Round Valley, eliciting a yelp from me as he caught me off guard with his speedy burst. 

"Was Shoes having a moment?" she asked innocently.

She was riding our stalwart Mickey Free, and we indulged in a walking "race" back to the trailer. Once there, I popped her up on Famous Shoes and lead them in a couple circles. The explosion of happiness on her face was blinding.

Another of our younger guests was caught up in Shoes' spell, asking for a session with him in the round pen. As she walked and trotted him around (and cantered a bit, to be honest...), I asked her surprised Dad, "Do you realise what your child is doing right now? Do you?!" (Bear in mind, this is the same child who rode Chisum for a week out on trail. Fearless isn't a big enough word to describe her.)

 

 

More than one young lady fell under his spell...

His fan club had an international reach...

Helen, who had ridden Tell previously, asked to take Famous Shoes on her second visit. Like soooooo many others, those bottomless brown eyes under that long wispy forelock had worked their magick on Helen. She mounted up in the Livery Yard to adjust stirrups and get used to him as even hinting at Shoes being the polar opposite of Tell was the height of understatement. I was busy with the other guest and getting Geronimo and Echo ready, I heard a squeak and some thunder. Shoes had misread her leg and shot forward, as was his wont. She stayed on, but quickly reassessed her thinking sitting our little man was going to be like anything she'd known before.

Out on trail, Helen and Shoes made a fabulous team, and the smile on her face was one for the books...

 

Helen and Shoes share a moment in the Faerie Glade at Price Canyon...

 

Three-quarters of the BeeGees at Price - G'mo, Echo, and Famous Shoes...

Shoes was all too happy to share lunch with humans. In fact, he once ate all my peanut butter crackers, faerie fruit snacks, AND my apple...

Notice his tongue...

Like always having his tongue bulging out the right side of his mouth, Famous Shoes loved to watch his shadow as he meandered along on trail. He would preen and prance, admiring his image cast large across the desert.

 

Of course there are more Famous Shoes memories and moments, but I have to save something for later...

Classic, classic Famous Shoes...