Horsing Around by Dallas Max Schneider

Orval Dallas Horsing Around by Dallas Max Schneider and added to by Bryonny Van Camp

(Original info Provided by Dallas Max Schneider and added/edited by Bryonny Van Camp- I figured Grandpa Max wouldn't mind as he loved improving a good story).

Orval Dallas Schneider was always on the look out for a good deal.  During one child/teenhood summer in Burley Idaho he made an agreement with a farmer to plow the farmers fields all summer long in return for a horse.  This would have been ideal situation for young Dallas, as he always had a dream in his heart that he would someday be a cowboy with his own ranch, and you can't very well be a cowboy with out a trusty horse.  Dallas really liked this particular horse because it was great jumper-because really what other qualifications would you be concerned with as a young boy.

After many long, hard, bistering hot days under the scorching Idaho sun, the work of the summer finally came to a conclusion and Dallas excitedly came to collect his well earned payment. 

However fate was not on his side that day when he asked for his payment, the farmer flattly refused to give him the horse as they had previously agreed.  Perhaps he underestimated the hard work ethic of the boy when the original deal was made and thought he would quit before the job was finished or it was just very rough in the the frontiers of Idaho and people went back on their word frequently and thought Dallas had no way of forcing a collection.  Whatever the case may be, the shear injustice must have been a absolutely crushing blow to Dallas; that had worked his hardesst all summer with now nothing to show for it.

He quickly ran home and told his mother, Hattie Barnett Schneider Austin, and stepfather, Hirum Austin, what had happened.  Hirum was a good man and took very seriously his fatherly duties.  He stepped in and went to the farmer and "made him give up the horse".  How he made him give up the horse will remain a mystery, but it would have been interesting to be a fly on that barn wall to hear that battle of words and wit.

Dallas was thrilled to have this horse as his own and he went everywhere in town by horseback.  Although he did not realized the dream of being a cowboy with his own ranch (instead he became an owner of a drycleaning business in Los Angeles), he turned out to be an excellent horseman and never forgot his first horse.