Army after the War is a different place altogether from before & many cannot afford this nowadays. So as my brother & I forked hay & slung buckets Capt. Brown & young Lt. Bisbee wandered among the beasts & from the side of our eyes we watched them pat flanks tug lips back & lift the hooves of the more gentle of the herd. Some of the horses would start & scatter when a body came near so these horses would likely be the finer of the mounts among them sure even a fool could tell it by looking but there are fools & then there are officers. (No offence to you Sir.)
Well in fairness Lt. Bisbee did have some knowledge of horse flesh for all the good it did him. He was jumped by some of Red Cloud’s Braves out on a scout shortly after we set up here in this Valley. The savages left him his prick & balls attached which was some good fortune I suppose but nothing much more of him was left alone. It is said his own mother would not of known his face if it was she that found him. God Rest Him but he was a kind soul & a good officer who did know his horses.
But that was later & that morning we watched the 2 of them as if we were not watching at all which is the way all soldiers watch their officers & come to know far more about them than any officer imagines.
So we knew from the off Tom & myself that the mount Capt. Brown finally chose though it was the fairest in appearance in the pen a big fine quarterhorse with some Indian paint mixed in & white socks well we did know that horse was in no way broken & had no mind to be. And perhaps poor Lt. Bisbee knew as well that beast was no good for a weak rider like the captain but him being of lesser rank & a softer sort of gentleman said nothing but took a coil of rope from where it hung on a post & fashioned a lasso from it.
“Give me that rope Bisbee,” says Capt. Brown all full of bluster. I saw Tom smile a smidge at this & pat the muzzle of a kindly piebald. My brother then rested his elbow on that horse’s bowed back & set himself to watching like he might a theatre play or music show.
In the Gaelic says I to Tom, “A dollar he never gets that loop round her neck before Taps be drummed out.”
“I would sooner hold a Loco to a dollar & watch it burn than take your wager brother.”
A smile came to my lips & I ducked behind that placid pony too so no one would see it. There I set up with my brother to watch that madman lassoo just about everything in the corral except that horse. He did even manage to rope a horse nearly losing his arms from their sockets in the doing but it was not the horse he was trying for & I learnt much in the way of new oaths & curses in English. (There are many things you cannot imagine doing to a horse but Capt. Brown could imagine them & roared more than once how he would do them to that mare!)
I tell you 7 or 8 times Mad Fred flung out that rope & once he even drew his pistol in a rage & threatened to shoot the white stocking mare if she did not heave to but that mare had more things on her mind hopping & snorting to send the other horses in the pen away in a fearful whinny of horse bodies & rising dust.
“Are you certain you want that one Sir?” says Lt. Bisbee in a mannerly way that would be hard for most men to manage. There was no judgement or mockery in his voice above the water but surely it lurked beneath making his words all the more merry for the rest of us.
Well Capt. Brown’s face was red & his hat cocked cattywampus. A pure state he was in & we 2 brothers & some other boys now in a gather at the fence fought hard to keep from showing the deep cut of our mirth. Truly Mad Fred & his mare did be a better show than the best motleyed harlequin in London Town or Dublin.