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BREAKING, BROKEN, BROKE ! !

How Nugget became Bow-legged.

Moonman tells this tale of his wrangler friend Nugget: -

Nugget, a small wizened man, face wrinkled from years of working in dust, sun and wind, was employed on a Central/Western Australian cattle selection, as a horse breaker.

On this particular selection roamed a certain brumby (an Australian wild horse), which was a notorious "bucker".

It was the ambition of every station hand to be able to ride it, but so far, without a great deal of success.

Now, as you may know, Australians are known the world over as willing to gamble on anything, from a fly crawling up the wall, to who will win the next Melbourne Cup.

Nugget was no exception. But being canny, he believed he could stack the odds in his favour.

He bet with the station workers he could ride the brumby to a standstill.

Having accepted and covered all bets he prepared to ride the horse.

He covered the seat of his "jeans" with glue and took to the saddle.

The horse was released from the chute.

It bucked; it cork-screwed; it sun-fished.

It pig rooted; it rolled.

It twisted and it propped on four legs, jarring the bones in Nugget's body.

But still could not get rid of Nugget.

Nugget stayed in the saddle, but as the day wore on he began to wish he could get off.

The day was hot and dusty and as it wore on, he also was dry and hungry.

The station workers were unable to get near the bucking horse to hand the water bag to Nugget so he could quench his thirst.

Using good old Australian initiative, their solution was to use a fire hose to wet him down and let him drink what water dribbled down his face.

Of course this did nothing to make the horse any quieter, merely increased its efforts to get rid of Nugget.

The horse continued to buck, determined to get rid of this leech from its back.

Night fell with the horse bucking far into the night and poor Nugget could not get off the horse, (an extremely strong brand of glue; Australian of course).:)

They found the only way they could feed Nugget was to flick green peas into his mouth using a table fork. The peas were small enough and soft enough not to hurt him.

On the third day the fibres of his jeans started to give way eventually tearing away from the seat of his pants, releasing him from the saddle.

Nugget flew high over the rails of the horse yard into a dam, (a natural or man-made pond), a quarter of a mile away.

When he managed to drag himself from the mud and water to the dam bank, it was found that Nugget walked bow-legged.

Why??? you ask.

The reason was that the horse had bucked so hard and Nugget had set his feet so solidly into the stirrups, his legs developed a bow from the constant shock of the jarring he received when the horse landed.

The brumby?????

Well it had finally bucked itself to a standstill and ever after, was used as a quiet child's pony.

The station owners' children and other children visiting used to learn to ride on it. J

Worldwide Copyright John W. 1998,2005

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