Now we're getting into something I had a little experience with. My father broke Mustangs & rode fence for the Browning Brothers (Arms). They had a ranch near where my father grew up. He carried that memory forward into his early fatherhood days. He was a brickmason by trade & he built a bar-b-q for a hometown resident. For pay he was given a horse, a buckskin, A mare named Merrylegs. Had the same coloring as Ben Cartwright's mount on Bonanza. I had hod-carried him & as a pay I was gifted the horse.
I rode her constantly & yes she had a mind of her own, went where she wanted & when she wanted. I raised her for about 5 years until she was 8, Then I went into the service & my father sold her to a crew that came through Utah looking for stock. They supplied many of the studios with horses because of their color. They put her in as a stock standin for Bonanza. They reported to my dad that she would the be the buckskin Ben rode. I had this one claim to fame.