Poker & Lesley

Lesley adopted Poker in August 1995 as a 2 year old stallion. He came from the Winnemucca district in Northern Nevada, from the Calico Mtns. He was gelded in January 1996.

Lesley reports: Poker is a real neat horse. He loves to work and hates to head for home when we trail ride. I am serious. He literally stops and refuses to go forward if we head home; keeps turning around to head out some more. I use him to work the wild ones off of. He is great; knows when I need him to stay still and to move in on a skittish horse one step at a time. He is a great critter.

I got a new yeller horse,
He's handy, stout, just barely tame.
He doesn't have a pedigree
Just some sage brush in his mane.

This horse has been cross country
Most men have never rode.
Over red rock mountains,
into canyons filled with aspen groves.

There's something about running free,
that puts sense in a pony's head.
The lessons in the wild don't count one,two,three,
But oft times dead.

When it comes to negotiating a switchback,
with a pack horse in tow,
or dallying a head strong steer,
no arena trip could make him know.

How to dig in with those hocks,
put his head down and pull.
All that stuff about bittin' up and leads
is just a lot of bull.

Hand me one that's learned his manners,
from the teeth of a bitchy mare.
That's had to dig to for his feed in winter
when the hills are just plain bare.

I've got me a case of trophies,
they're not made of silver and such.
It's just the times that me and my pony,
have ridden the mountains we love so much.

So you can have your polished show horse,
with his blankets nose to tail.
I'll take my rangy mustang,
who rather stand outside, ass-end to the hail.


Lesley Neuman, 1997