Welcome, Miss Poco 349 from the Perkins Ranch

Many moons ago, a skinny cowboy from Louisiana found himself out of a job in Tyler, TX, while his girlfriend had just started a new job in Tyler and didn't want to quit just yet. He heard about a job opening at a ranch just outside Tyler in Flint, TX. The ranch needed someone to put the first rides on their cutting bred quarter horses. He brought his saddle and himself out for the "interview," and was hired on the spot, probably more due to his age, body shape, and honesty than his experience. For the next four cold, winter months, he rode some of the finest two year old horses he had ever seen or experienced horseback. He then decided that one day, he would really like to own one of those horses.

That next March he left the job to marry his sweetheart and move with her and his backyard-bred half-Arabian horse to the Texas hill country to manage 23 horses at a Christian camp and live on a quite
low ministry income for three years.

When they got ready to have children, the couple couldn't resist the opportunity to move back home to Louisiana for a little more income and a much closer commute to family.

Within the first year, the ranch in Tyler advertised a horse sale, and the skinny cowboy saved up enough money to buy one of the cheapest horses at the sale- a two-year-old bay gelding he called Sonny.

Sonny was a very calm, cowy horse who was easy to train, and the skinny cowboy had big dreams of starting back into team roping on him. But as fate would have it, in October of the horses fourth year, Sonny came down with a very severe colic and had to be put down.

The cowboy later had other horses to ride, but his dream horse's life had been cut short.

Three years, two kids, and many team ropings later, the cowboy heard about the old man he had worked for having a horse dispersal sale, and the skinny cowboy's wife told him to go pick her out a horse, just so he would go to the sale and get something for himself as well.

He studied hard each day before the sale auction began, just to make sure he didn't miss any options. For her, he picked out a short, stocky dun 4 year old unbroke mare- Miss Poco 349. For himself , he purchased a tall , stout, team roping prospect- a red roan- Red Hot Flasher.

His wife was overjoyed with her horse, and he was proud of his gelding from the Perkins Ranch. They saddled and worked their horses every day of the week after the kids went bed. They hauled them and started from scratch on their trianing together, on their dream horses- the Perkins Ranch horses.

Miss Poco 349- day 4 of living at our house. May 29, 2014