It was also Tug who chose the old gelding to stay in the pen with the colt after the others were gone. The gelding, a nondescript bay named Zip, was born and raised on the place and had proved to be one of the most solid working geldings Tug had ever seen. Anytime a job needed to be done on horseback on the ranch, like dragging a calf to the fire, roping and doctoring a sick cow out in the open, sorting, moving a bull from one place to another, or even just repairing fence where a horse might need to stand hobbled for hours at a time, the first choice for most of the cowboys on the place had always been Zip. He was quiet, reliable and stout enough to hold nearly any steer or cow once roped.

Unfortunately, because he had been used so hard for so long, at twelve years old Zip began to develop arthritis in his hips, and by fifteen he had been all but retired from any and all work on the ranch. Tug had always been of a mind that horses that had outlived their usefulness on a ranch should be sold, plain and simple. Maybe go to some middle-aged lady looking for a safe trail horse, or a kid looking for his first rope horse. But even Tug had a soft spot for Zip. From day one Zip had always been a good, honest-working horse. He never quit and never complained and if the Essex’s would have allowed Tug to get rid of the old-timers, Tug believed he would have found a way to keep the old bay gelding.

The cold months were hardest on Zip, and Tug noticed him having more and more trouble getting around out in the pasture during the winter. He had planned on keeping him up by the barn this year anyway instead of letting him run with the herd, so it wasn’t difficult to make the decision on which horse to keep in so the colt had some company.

Tug had instructed Cat to take the old horse from the pen while it was still light so the colt could see him go, and then leave the gate open. He also told him to clean every scrap of feed out of the catch pen, and drain the water tank. In doing so, he knew it wouldn’t be long before the colt would start looking for food and water, and soon enough he would make his way through the open gate, into the alley and toward the pen that held Zip. Tug knew the one thing that most horse people fail to understand. Horses are born followers. Given the opportunity and the right motivation, a horse—even a mustang—will follow another horse just about anywhere. He also knew if you try to drive a mustang somewhere they don’t want to go, things can, and often do, get very messy, very quickly. By setting the situation up the way he did, Tug allowed the colt to move into the pen he ultimately wanted him in, rather than trying to make him go into it, as many less experienced horsemen might do.