Another Sturdy Story

Sturdy and I were riding over by Lost Springs one fall, helping Ted Pennington gather cattle in order to wean the calves. I was riding Gremlin. This was after he had quit trying to unload me every chance he got.
It was a great big, rough pasture with a lot of hills and draws, so we all spread out to scour the gulleys for critters. I was riding along at the top of a soft, steep bank when Gremlin began to side down it sideways. I was probably leaning toward the bank, trying to keep Gremlin from sliding, when my saddle turned sideways. I bailed out of it before it went under Gremlin's belly and he ran off down the draw bucking and kicking at the saddle that had, by now, gone up side down. He was headed back in the direction where we had last seen Sturdy.
I took off running down the draw after him, because I knew old Sturdy would have a heart attack if he saw a rider-less Gremlin coming over the hill. I had to keep stopping and picking up pieces of my tack and finally, the whole saddle came into view lying on the trail. He had kicked it off. I threw it up over my shoulder, grateful it was not my heavy roping saddle.
Sure enough, here came Sturdy whipping and spurring up over the hill. He had caught sight of Gremlin rider-less and saddle-less and immediately loped off in the direction the old black and white son-of-a-gun had come from in order to look for me. He sure was relieved to see me stomping down the trail.
Ted came over the hill on his four-wheeler, so I threw my saddle in the carrier and hopped on behind him. We followed the herd on into the house, but Gremlin wouldn't come along. He just stayed up in the pasture; in fact, he went to the far side of the pasture. He was trying to go home.
Another of Gremlin's bad habits is that he is almost impossible to catch outside of a corral. We stewed and worried about how we were going to catch him. I allowed that someone would probably have to run him down on another horse and rope him.
Sturdy said he bet if we just took my trailer up there with another horse in it and opened the gate, Gremlin would jump right in there. I almost bet him he wouldn't.
So we loaded up the best rope horse and the best roper of the bunch and went back to the far end of the pasture. Sure enough, I couldn't believe my eyes, but it happened just as Sturdy said. Old Sturdy was puffed up so big after that, he almost burst his buttons. He sure did like to tell that story. All's well that ends well.
I've been trying to find a picture of Sturdy to include, but my pictures are in a jumbled mess right now. Somebody close the gate.