Growing Up with Horses in Wyoming--Deanne Bradley

"Deanne Bradley, and I wanted to talk a little bit about my first ponies I had. I had Shetland ponies and we had two of them, which were Peanuts and Popcorn. When we first started riding, my brother rode Peanuts 'cause he was the biggest and the fastest, and I got Popcorn 'cause he was the slowest and the smallest. Then supposedly I got to graduate to a bigger horse, so they bought another "half-Shetland," and her name we had to have, Candy, with our Peanuts and Popcorn. Candy was a great horse. I had to have help to get on her, but I loved her. It was only a couple times that I needed help. She and I got it all figured out how I could get on top of her and do the riding.

Then my first larger horse was named Betty, and I got Betty because she was my mother's horse, and my mother never rode. They wanted Betty to get some exercise, so I was chosen. Betty was a roan, and she was fun. She was always fat, overfed, but we had a good time together. The next one I graduated to was Rusty, and Rusty, here again, was my fastest horse. Then my last horse that I remember while I was on the ranch growing up was Tad, and he was my dad's chariot horse. He was really fast. It only took me two or three times when the runaway down the lane knew he was more horse that I could handle, and I didn't like him. I didn't ride him for long . . . "

This story was collected in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its national traveling exhibition "The Way We Worked" when it was on view in Big Piney, Wyoming in 2018. This story is part of the "Be Here: Main Street" story collection, intended to capture Americans' stories about their neighborhoods, waterways, towns, traditions, and personal experiences.

This story was collected in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its national traveling exhibition "The Way We Worked" when it was on view at the Sublette County Public Library in Pinedale, Wyoming, in 2018. This story is part of the "Be Here: Main Street" story collection, intended to capture Americans' stories about their neighborhoods, waterways, towns, traditions, and personal experiences.

Tags: BHS-Job-You-Had, BHS-Main-Street
​Asset ID #7662