Cougar Rides Bareback
She does the ‘Lady Godiva’ ride
I was 19 years old during the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college. My meager summer job was working for a Montana dude ranch where eastern city dwellers would come and experience the wild western life of the old mountaineers. We three men — at the time I considered myself to be a grown man — maintained a fishing camp in a saddle valley between two mountains. This was my job — to live at the camp and provide the necessary comforts as the greenhorn fishermen tested the ‘roughing–it’ lifestyle. This was my job — to provide sufficient primitive camping experience to send them home with fond memories, but also to ensure that they all got home with nothing more painful than a saddle sore.
Okay, that’s an exaggeration. I wasn’t actually in-charge of anything. I did what the camp boss said, and he was responsible for the safety and fun of the guests. I would help out guiding the guests to the lakes and making sure they didn’t get hurt or lost.
Each week the boss would bring up a new group of city dudes to trout fish in the small, high mountain lakes. ‘Bring up’ meant a four-hour horseback ride which was likely the first horseback ride for many of the dudes and their dudette wives. They would arrive sore, tired, and hungry. After a campfire meal of hotdogs and beans, they would tell ghost…
