Through out the years I have owned many horses but none was as fine as ole Fancy. She wasn’t the prettiest thing to look at with wide set front legs and kinda of a long head but she was stout, well muscled and would do anything. When ever I had a customer that was really afraid of horses I would put them on Fancy. Also when I needed a good working cow horse she was my pick. When I needed a horse to wade out in the river so I could fly fish, she was the one.
We were on a ten day hunting trip in the back country and Stanley from NYC who was one of the clients was terrified from the gitgo but he really wanted to do this trip. We had a long way to go to get to camp and through some pretty tough terrain. Stanley had never been on a horse before so I put him on Fancy and told him that when we get to some tough spots to just let her have her head and she would take care of you. He had serious doubts about the whole thing. To make a long story short, after spending ten days in the wilderness and Fancy was his horse every day, when we got back to the trailhead he shook my hand and thanked me for a great time. He then went to Fancy and put his arms around her neck and started crying.
Fancy had one draw back and that was that she was kinda windy, not just kinda windy but real windy. Joe had a saying that his dad always told him on the ranch. A fartin man is the one to hire and a fartin horse will never tire. I guess he was right.
When I retired ole Fancy we had a party for her at the lodge and the turnout was amazing. One of the local ranch lady’s made her a cake out of pellets, gently brushed with molasis and an apple in the middle. There even was a rumor that she was allowed in the lodge to stand in the place of honor and eat her cake.