horses, from a note to Kate and Val

I studied biology and animal behavior (ethology) in college as an undergrad.  My botany professor, Dr. John Morrison, had gone to college with Edson Fichter, who was studying pronghorn antelope behavior in Idaho.  He wrote to John that he was looking for someone to study wild horses and John told me and I wrote to Edson and he said he was looking for a boy, that it wasn't a job for a girl because the student would have to live alone in the wilderness where there were grizzlies and rattlesnakes and I got in my car and drove out there and presented myself to him, rough, tough and ready and insisted he take me and he did.

I've owned a couple horses, but was never good enough rider to compete, though I did occasionally compete and once won the sit-a-buck contest.  That is where you ride bareback clutching a dollar under your thigh.  The last person still holding a dollar wins all the others.

I love horses, but they are a lot of work.  I also used to work in a huge horse barn where they rented out stalls (boarded horses) mucking out stalls.