My First Saddle

Ivan bought a saddle in an auction at Price for his kids to use. I (Jerry) used the saddle to break horses. I didn’t own a horse, but my older brother Monroe gave me a horse. Monroe had a two-year old horse that was an excellent barrel horse. Every time Monroe got on it the horse would throw him off. This is the horse he gave me. It was a high strung thoroughbred. When it was in a parade, it would dance down the street.It was a thoroughbred stallion. I plowed up a 40-acre field while breaking it. One day, the horse ran through 5 barb wire fences in Castle Dale and it got cut up so Monroe had to shoot it. Later, I bought a bigger saddle that I used to break horses. Ina Lee Magnuson’s dad (Byron Johansen) raised and sold thoroughbred horses. He had a ranch at Scofield, Utah. I went there for the summer to build fence. My brother Monroe and wife Ina Lee lived there during the summer. Byron Johansen had me ride his horses before he sold them so he could tell them the buyer that the horse has had a saddle on it and it has been ridden. One day I rode seven horses in one day. There was one horse that I wouldn’t ride. So, Byron Johansen said he would ride it himself. He got on the horse and the horse jumped twice then it fell over. Jerry said when he was deciding which horses he would ride he would watch the horse run past him in the coral and if it didn’t look ride-able he wouldn’t ride it. Byron Johansen raised horses on the desert. He had a stallion that belonged to the government, a thoroughbred, that he used as the Stud. He had a contract to raise horses. At one time, he had 30 horses. He sent some horses to England and the Queen of England rode them in polo contests.  They were all good thoroughbred horses.

The saddle I used to break horses, my brother Monroe kept it when I moved to Sandy.