The Cheapskates camp has gone from the largest camp to the smallest camp, and despite our numbers, we have a great time together and enjoy the ride. We often sit around the campfire listening to our resident Historian, Bob Bogart, recount cheapskate escapades. The following is one of our favorites.
“Be Careful Who You Give Your Reins To”
One of the more memorable moments for the Cheapskates happened a number of years ago, just before leaving town to hit the trail. Gil Snyder was a long time Cheapskate and Wickenburg resident. He was on the board of directors and involved with the horse races. On this particular year, Gil was to give a brief speech before we rode out of town. Typical for the DC ride we had the staging area where we meet up for the honoring of empty saddles and the speeches. During this time it’s not uncommon to have someone hold the reigns to your horse while your on the stage. Sometimes you come back and maybe there’s been a bit of a dust up with horses being anxious with all thats going on. Pretty straight forward unless you hand your reigns to a few pranksters in the Cheapskates camp led by Bob Bogart who has had way too much time to prepare for such an opportunity.
You see if you know what you’re doing and can quietly move to the side of the sea of horses and men, you can get a lot done to a rider’s horse in a short period of time. Especially if they are distracted giving a speech.
Gil had the typical trail riding gear we are all accustomed to. The saddle, the pad, reigns, breast collar and headstall. There was just a couple problems with them, they were normal and belonged to Gil. This obviously could not be tolerated.
A few months before the ride, a highly secret endeavor had been under taken to “upgrade” Gil’s riding gear. At first I was unaware of the top secret plan that had been put in to place. Then strange pieces of gear started arriving at our shop, one at a time.
While not totally out of the ordinary for us to get special orders from customers these had no name and no payment tags attached. Curious I asked dad (aka Bob Bogart) who they were for. “They are for the ride” was the response. I thought, really? well ok then.
As we left to head to Wickenburg for the ride he asked, do we have the trunk with the extra gear? I made sure it was in. As we made ready for the parade out of town we made sure the new gear was at hand and we were the closest to take Gil’s horse when needed.
Gil made his way to the stage and we went to work. Gil made a brilliant speech (at least that’s what we were told) and returned for his horse. He walked up looked around and asked for his horse. He looked around again and said who’s got my horse? The reigns were handed to him. He stared for a minute at the horse in front of him and indeed it was his horse with new gear. Not just any gear but hot pink fuzzy gear.
After a few choice words and some laughs he asked for his gear to put back on his trusty trail horse. By that time, unfortunately, or by careful planning it was time to parade out of town and his original gear was safely on a truck headed to our first camp. And that’s why you should always be careful who you hand your reigns to.
Happy trails from the Cheapskates!
