Saturday 29 July 2023

Remembering a true Rancher

In my years in rural Oregon, I became very familiar with farming, ranching, cows and horses and everything connected with country life. One person who introduced me to the field of equine terminology and life with horses is Jim Clark, who lived in Mount Vernon, Oregon, with his wife Colleen running Clark Quarterhorses, a ranch that I became acquainted with since 2005. I was given the honor to ride a horse, helped by Jim, who made sure to give me the mildest and gentlest horse in his ranch, named Sugar. He had close to 100 horses at one time, and one of them was named Julian. I admired the way Jim handled them as they followed him in every direction and the instructions he gave them. Sadly Jim passed away this week, and I wanted to honor him and show you some his horses. He even gave me a grey cowboy hat after I was told that the black hat I had bought is only worn by the bad guys. 

'The Magnificent Seven'

In one of my visits, a group of horses came over to us and lined themselves up as I took the photo seen here, which I called ‘The Magnificent Seven.’ May Jim rest in peace, as I pray for his wife Colleen and his daughters Karen and Deanna, both of whom helped in the running of the ranch, especially over the past few months when Jim’s health was getting weaker. Rest in peace Jim.

Jim leading me on Sugar back in 2005.

You can also see Colleen’s own Blog ‘The Turn-up Patch’ with some photos of Jim interacting with his horses. Follow it here: https://turn-uppatch.blogspot.com/ 

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