Cowboys and Indians

Playing cowboys and Indians was a popular past time when I was about ten years old.  It didn't require a lot of props.  Sometimes my brothers and I would chase each other and wrestle like we saw in the movies.  Usually the cowboys had superior weapons.  The Indian would have a weed fashioned into a spear by stripping some leaves.  Most of the time the cowboy would have a play gun or pretend to have a gun and make sounds like "pow" or something similar.

On one particular occasion, the game took a more realistic turn. We decided to combine cowboys and Indians with riding our horses.  This seemed to be an authentic addition to the usual running through the woods and chasing each other on foot.  To add to the authenticity my youngest brother would be carrying his BB gun.  This was a little extra generous to allow the Indian to carry a rifle, but we were feeling generous that day.

It was decided that the Indian would be given a head start and shortly the cowboys would give chase.  As so often happens things didn't go exactly as expected.  After the Indian had begun his run for freedom,  the Indian pony he was riding, did a lightening turn around and broke into a gallop back towards us and the house. 

As the Indian raced by, all we heard was "Whoa!"  and the sound of BBs in the rifle which reminded us of maracas.  We thought the horse had either heard a rattlesnake or had a kind of snake avoidance instinct.  We had never seen that horse run so fast before.

We turned and gave chase but didn't gain a lot on the Indian pony.  It turned the corner headed for the house at a frightening speed.  My brother was holding the reins in one hand and his trusty rifle in the other.  He was exhibiting some fair skill in staying on the pony.  We always rode bareback, so there wasn't much to hold on to. 

The next turn was even more spectacular.  the horse was still running as fast as it could and made a left ninety degree turn thru the open barbed wire gate into the driveway. My brother somehow managed to stay on again but with a great deal of effort.  He still had that rifle in one hand.
It was about a hundred yards to the pasture gate by the barn; however, it was not straight ahead.  The gate was around another ninety degree turn to the right.  To make things more interesting, there was barbed wire fence bordering the drive all the way to the pasture gate. 

The next thing that happened was so quick that it was almost too fast to see.  The horse made the right turn towards the pasture gate still running full out.  Thankfully the gate was open.  When the horse made that right turn, my brother went airborne.  It seemed as though he was in flight for a long time.

His flight was the best part.  Next he made a series of touch downs on a lumber pile that was stacked there.  We will never totally agree on what happened, but I think he still had his BB gun when he came to a complete stop.

Although he didn't suffer any lasting injuries, I never saw my brother ride a horse with a BB gun after that. There was no official count, but there were a number of splinters missing from that lumber pile and you can guess where they were.