Becky Coffield's Blog – May 2009 Archive (10)

Besides being impulsive and frequently out of control, I also suffer from Big Mouth Disease. I often get the feeling that lots of people don’t like this about me.



My last attack happened when a co-worker told me about his wife doing endurance races. It hit like a thunderbolt. Suddenly I heard not a word he said as I saw my destiny as a world-famous endurance rider!! Fabulous images crossed my mind as I envisioned myself galloping through the dell, trailering around the world to… Continue

Louis L’Amour’s autobiography, Education of a Wandering Man, is an extremely interesting read for those who are L’Amour fans and even for those who want to see a slice of life that simply is no more.



L’Amour spends most of his time in the book recounting his days as a drifter doing odd jobs, hopping freights and working occasionally as a merchant marine. This is very surprising, as most people don’t expect a world famous author to be such a knockabout, high school drop out… Continue

My shoer, Wayne, came by the other day to do the new shoe thing on my horse, and while he was tapping and filing he told me about a book he was planning on writing entitled: So You Think You Want to Own a Horse. He explained that each chapter would cover details about horse ownership that prospective new owners might not know.

I found his idea instantly attractive considering my own astounding ignorance about horses when I bought my quarter horse… Continue

Let me tell you, it was a lot harder than it looked. Here’s a person in the cutest outfit riding around in circles, acting just as calm as can be. Someone tells them where to turn and how fast to go, which never seems to be much faster than a trot. Piece of cake, I figured. So, I signed up for my first dressage lesson.

I opted to go to a complete stranger and use one of my many aliases. That way if things didn’t quite work out, I’d never have to… Continue

What is currently being sold as saddlebags is pathetic. What are these things supposed to hold? A roll of toilet paper maybe? Not much else. You see, most people are woefully unprepared when they ride out that driveway into the wilderness, but I, well, judge for yourself whether you wouldn’t rather be lost with me and my saddle bag contents any day of the week compared to being lost with just about anybody else.



For starters, I never leave home without aesthetic items. If one is… Continue

A Cowboy’s Trail Guide to Westerns, by David F. Matuszak is an excellent addition to any western film buff’s bookshelf. Matuszak has taken his love of the western film and shared his experience, opinion and wisdom on these remarkable, truly American, works of art.



The art of the Western Film is obviously a life long passion of Matuszak’s. He catalogues and rates every movie made for the first one hundred years of western film. Besides developing a scoring guide for different… Continue

This backing of a horse trailer, or trailer of any kind, is simply not in my DNA. It’s not that I haven’t tried to back a trailer, or that my husband has not repeatedly tried to teach me. Anyway, he should know by now that he can’t teach me anything. But he tries, and the louder his voice gets the worse I do, wildly careening the trailer from one jack knifed position to another. Finally I close my window to shut out his booming voice. Then he tries to give hand gestures and rotates his fingers… Continue

Death on the Prairie, The Thirty Years’ Struggle for the Western Plains will definitely take any reader to the edge of dismay and shame.



Cruelty and maltreatment of the Indian by the military and Indian Agents, along with disrespect and a complete lack of understanding and empathy for the misplaced, cheated American native, led the Western Plains Indians to wage brutal war with the whites. Time and again, however, Wellman points out that these wars were prompted by the white… Continue

Leon Claire Metz, author of The Shooters – A Gallery of Notorious Gunmen from the American West, has compiled an impressive list of famous, and infamous, American lawmen and outlaws. Each of the twenty-nine characters covered in this entertaining book, is a well known name to aficionados of Western literature and lore.



From Billy the Kid to Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp, Metz explores the facts and fables surrounding these well known personalities. Time has done much to… Continue

I’m thinking of running away, but I can’t decide if I want to run off to Las Vegas, where I still might be able to get a job as a cocktail waitress, or to Costa Rica, where I might be arrested for camping on the beach. Actually, I should probably go to Costa Rica since I only know one person in Las Vegas and he’s a happily married man.



I’m not at all unhappy. In fact, I’m about the happiest person I know except for GMC employees who’ll get a 9 week paid vacation this summer. I’m just… Continue