SECOND CHOICE
by
Heidi
Cochise, the horse of Little Joe Cartwright, was in a jolly mood. Life was laughing at her. She lived at the Ponderosa, got enough to eat and plenty of body exercise. But one day something drastic changed in the life of the life of the pinto.
Little Joe bought in Virginia City a bike. He had the luck that his father Ben and elder brothers Adam and Hoss were not at home or otherwise he would have heard one thing or the other. On the way home the young Cartwright:‘I am gonna paint my bike just like Cochise. The name will be Cochise 2.’
Arrived at home Little Joe parked his bike at the yard. In the tack room
he found quite soon a jar of black paint and a jar with white paint in it.
He also found two paint brushes.
“Now only to call Cochise so that my horse can pose while I make my bike
just like my riding-animal”, he said to himself.
“Cochise! Cochise, come here for a second”, Little Joe called.
‘Hold on Little Joe, I’m comin’’, thought the horse.
The animal ran to the ranch house and saw her owner.
“Just you pose Cochise. Then I can paint my new bike just like you”, said
Little Joe.
So said, so done.
Within a few hours Little Joe had 2 times a Cochise in his ownership; a horse and a bike. Cochise went back to the meadow where the animal remained very much. In fact so much that the horse became jealous of her namesake. Little Joe was so proud of his new toy that he rode night and day on it. Often Cochise saw that whereby the pinto hatched a plan. ‘Tonight I am gonna ride on Cochise. And then so that that steed of steel is never to be used again’, thought Cochise.
That night Cochise escaped out of the meadow. The horse went looking for the bike of Little Joe. The bike was parked in front of the porch. ‘Just tease my owner’, thought Cochise. One way or the other the pinto knew how to get on the bike and the Tour De Ponderosa began. Hill up, hill down. At a certain moment Cochise had come to a mountain near the lake of Tahoe. The pinto stood on the mountain next to the bike. ‘I let that thing clatter down’, thought Cochise. The pinto gave the bike a hard push whereby the bike pased away, came down into the lake and sunk to the bottom of the lake. Satisfied Cochise went back to the meadow.
The next morning Little Joe wanted to make a bike ride but he didn’t see
the bike nowhere. An examiniation learned him that next to the bike horseshoe
tracks were to be seen. He knew right away that it were the shoe tracks
of Cochise.
“Well, a bike at the Ponderosa is nothing. Just give me a horse”, Little
Joe said to himself.
Since that moment on Little Joe Cartwright never again replaced his horse
Cochise for a different means of transport.