F. W. Duck AKA Dave Nicholson

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Karen Nelson knelson@thegrid.net
I just can't sit here and swallow the idea that Dave only vets horses from the back of his mnotorcycle or from the comfort of a lawn chair.   I have ridden since 1985 and have about 4000 miles.  I have also done more than a small chare of crewing--particularly for the point to point rides that Dave puts on.  I have had him ride by me and make sure everything was A-OK.  In the middle of Utah on a horse I had never ridden before, doing my first 5 day--really first multiday-and wondering how I had let Jim Baumgardner talk me into his madness, I really felt that I was in safe hands.  I have watched Dave tell all the riders that they were in charge of their animal, and I never took offense.  I know he is gruff, but then, so am I, so I guess I understand.  If I need help, there are less than 10 riders I know that I want to be with on the trail with, and Dave Nicholson is definately the Vet I want to be helping me.  I have been there when a horse broke a girth billet and bucked down the snow-covered hillside and got into barbed wire.  I got recruited to hold stuff, and without injectable pain killers, Dave sewed the flap around the cannon/tendon with unwaxed dental floss, and TALKED that horse into being still.  Just thinking about still brings tears to my eyes.  This man has forgotten more about vetting than most of the current crop of students out there.  When you new riders have the priviledge of being at a ride that Dave is working, thank your lucky stars silently or openly, but THANK them, just the same.  Karen Nelson #4299