Chiefs time.

If you are an animal lover, at some point in this lifetime, you have had a favorite pet. My beloved husband (Mr.)'s best buddy and right hand man has always been an Appaloosa named Chief. My husband, who had an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time, was able to purchase Chief at an incredible bargain. The horse was valued at $10,000.00 but  was able to purchase him for a mere $500.00 from a family living near him.

Their friendship was instant. Since the day in 1989 that he purchased the 5 year old Appy, they have been everywhere together. They have hunted, raced, trotted, rescued and ran alot of places together. As Mr. put's it "I love that horse because he doesn't do stupid stuff" (and if you really know my husband, you know the actual S word that Stan used to replace the word 'stuff').

Chief served as an amazing watch dog on the farm. Since I was a city girl and was unaware that in the middle of the night, if we heard Chief sound the alarm and neigh, something was up. I still remember the first time this happened after my big move to the country. At 2am Chief sounded the alarm and within a second, my husband grabbed a big gun and small flashlight and he ran outside in his Jesus Jammies. My mind raced to imagine which horrible creature may be lurking outside. As I crept out onto the very dark front porch, my first realization was that there weren't street lights for at least 40 acres so I experienced darkness that I had never known before. I heard a loud SLAM and looked behind me to see what I was sure to be a wolf and then our pony Little Red lifted her head and I realized I was not going to be eaten by the big bad wolf but we did need to get Little Red (aka Houdini) out of the grain box and back into the barn.


Chief was almost as big of a character as my husband is. Like Stan, Chief served as a "Cop" while patroling Rock Canyon in Provo and served "under cover" as a robber's wild stallion while Stan rode along side the Heber Creeper and thrilled guests with the staged holdups on their train ride through Provo Canyon. Chief has literally saved his life several times and they are a couple that have been through alot of rough times together and not just on the riding trail. Chief was diagnosed with cancer about 5 years ago. He had surgery to remove the cancer and seemed to be doing just fine.

When my husband and I first started dating, we would go for long rides in the Mapleton hills. He rode Chief and I rode his other Appy named Shadow. The one and only time I had the priviledge of riding Chief through the 40 acres behind our home, he was very well behaved. That is until we turned around and headed home. Then in a flash, I was holding on to the saddle for dear life. I was absolutely certain that at any moment I would be taking flight off the horse and landing as a heap of broken pieces somewhere in that field. We made it to our fence and luckily Chief hit the breaks just in time.

Chief was a one man horse and my husband was his man. One of the most beautiful things I have ever had the priviledge to watch was to see him run that horse. It was something out of "Dances with Wolves".  He did his best Kevin Costner and would put both arms out straight, letting go of the reigns and ride as fast as that horse would run. I don't know that there are words to describe the beauty and the joy of a horse and rider who are so well in tune and so caught up in just such a moment. It was magic.

In around 1995 a group of 9 other police officers decided to enter their horses in the Pony Express race.  He and Chief brought up the rear and  overheard the announcer say that the fastest horse of the day was his Appy Chief running at about 42 miles per hour. Needless to say, Chief won his section of the race and he was so proud of Chief's accomplishment.

Over this past winter, we noticed Chief beginning to struggle. It is such sad news that terminal cancer has returned and our sweet horse Chief may not have much time before he moves on to greener pastures in heaven. My husband is going to miss his buddy Chiefers but he feels so blessed to have had him for all this time. We are spoiling him for what time he has left and hope to be able to get through it when the time comes for that final goodbye. Thank you Chief for watching over my husband all these years.