Gutsy woman wrangler, huge horse save boy from charging grizzly - Spokesman.com - Sept. 18, 2011

Working as a team is definitely necessary. Otherwise they can accomplish nothing. This was a great display of courage by both Tonk and Bolster. That boy and his horse, Scout, couldn't have been in better hands.

Isn't it? Everyone, including the bear, survived without injury.

You're welcome. Glad I found it and could share it.

Good point. Of course, the bear was just being a bear and doing what bears do. Perhaps in the bear world, s/he was a hero too, taking on the invaders or trying to feed cubs.

LOL. You'd be surprised at the level of knowledge it takes to be considered competent in the horse world. There are entire colleges dedicated to training equestrians of all types.

Of course, book learning cannot replace the thousands of hours working with your four-legged partner that are necessary to be a good wrangler.

ROTFLOL For three decades, I ran a show horse stable. Can't tell you how many one-sided love affairs I saw, especially among the teen crowd before guys were old enough to realize that was a triangle they were going to lose. Every time a guy gave a gal an ultimatum -- it's me or the horse -- he was gone. Never saw a gal pick the other way around.

I liked that part too. Always nice to hear of a good guy ending up with a permanent home.

You'd be wrong about the stud. Tonk is a gelding -- much more reliable and better able to focus on the task at hand.

As to a movie, I agree it has all the right elements. Trouble is, they'd have to pad it out with all sorts of extraneous stuff to make it movie length. Probably want to throw in a romance too cause, ya know, women just can't be viewed without being ditzy over some guy. Probably the kid's dad, thus giving her a "real" motive for saving the kid's life. Movies just can't stand the idea that women can be heroes just because of who they are and their ability to rise to the situation. They gotta have a guy as their motive, don't ya know?

Why not just two ordinary people, one in her element, one out of his element. One rising to the occasion, one wishing he'd been able to do more to help his son. Perhaps he's upset with himself because of it. Most parents would react that way to feeling helpless in the face of danger to their child.

She definitely isn't in a stereotypical job. As a horsewoman, I know the mindset for this job couldn't even imagine herself in a stereotypical job. Her dominance wouldn't be a conscious thing, just something arising out of her choices in life, her view of herself. She has to be dominate in that environment. She would not survive otherwise. Also, dominance is part of her job. She has to be able to control not just her own mount, but the mounts of others and the people on those mounts if she's going to get them all back safely. It also wouldn't be overbearing. Horses have a way of humbling people, and that has to be the first trait rejected if you're going to get along with them.

There is a spiritual essence with horses and in that environment that would be difficult to describe or portray on film. To me, that would be the heart of the movie.

Yeah, the WOW factor. So needed because that is the way we all live our lives. NOT.

One of the things we've lost in the move away from reading to the dependence upon visual media is the ability to contemplate the fuller meaning of the situations we find ourselves in. Contemplation doesn't have a visual WOW factor, but it transforms us into better people. I find the latter more compelling.

We're the poorer for it. Yes, you can direct. Not a job I would like anyway. I'll be happy with the writing.

Well, thank you. That's nice to hear. I'm probably interesting because I dare to say what others only think to themselves. LOL. As I've come to learn more about you, my views about you have changed too, so it's a mutual process.

The limitations of this medium make it hard to know one another, especially at first meeting. This is a flat medium while we are all multi-faceted with many nuances. On my column, I've chosen to focus on women's issues, something that irritates a lot of people just because they feel more comfortable if they are not confronted with the realities of women in this and other societies.

It is easy to mistake such a column for the complete person. While I try to keep the column tightly focused, I am not that way in real life. I have many and varied interests. That usually isn't apparent here unless someone follows me for a long while.

Sometimes people I clash with in the begining turn out to be great friends once we get to know each other. Part of the clashes are caused by the false assumption that because I advocate for women's rights, I hate men. Even though I almost always discuss patriarchy rather than individual men, this continues to be a problem -- one that irritates me enormously at times. Other times, it's just boring. In real life, there are several men and boys who would be surprised to hear that I hate them. LOL.

But this medium thrives on stereotypes. I'm sure many people here would be surprised to know that this morning I unsubbed from a Facebook feminist group because of their intolerance for women who like men. Some one in that group subbed me on a couple of days ago (I really hate that about FB, that someone else can put you into their group without your knowledge or permission). At first, I thought, great. Sounds interesting. But then the hostility was just too much, so I left.

I prefer a serene life. My home reflects this as does my choice of real life friends, even if my column doesn't. ROTFLOL.

ROTFLOL. That's a great way to think about it. Sorry to hear your short term memory is affected. Hope it clears up. What would we be if we lost our memories completely? Hard to imagine. We are a conglomeration of our experiences. If we cannot remember them, would we be different people with different personalities?

I've changed careers more than once in my lifetime. I tend to get bored with them about every decade or so. So follow your heart and find another that you'll love doing. Life is too short spending all day, every day doing something we don't like.