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7 Tamale Ridge by: Chuck Cusimano
garañón.” Meaning, “Given time, this good colt will become a great stallion.”
When Uncle Trent asked Juan what he should call the colt, Juan never batted an eye.
“ Ju better call ‘im “TAMALE” because I tink he going to be plenty hot!”
The name stuck. It didn’t take long till everyone knew about Tamale.
The old timers all tell their favorite Tamale stories and I wish I could hear all of them.
Back when old Seth Watkins was still alive he told Joe Simmons about the time he
and Uncle Trent rode over to Alamosa, Colorado for the fiesta and Uncle Trent almost got in an
unwanted horserace. It wasn’t that he even thought he might lose the race. He just didn’t want
to race and after all, he lived in a free country. They were just going over to see the action and
visit a little. Uncle Trent wanted to see if he could sell some colts to the local ranchers in
that area. They would have those fiestas in various places. Some fellers would get
some bad broncs together and have a bronc ridin’ contest and there would usually be some
horse races, a roping, a dance and who knows what. Those kind of events always attract some
bad actors. It seems this local feller wanted to show off for a young, pretty señorita but none
of the local boys wanted a part of racing against Emilio Sanchez’s Bandito, known to be
fast. It was said that Bandito could run all right but Emilio carried a reputation for doing
anything to win a race.
The day they arrived, Uncle Trent rode a half brother of Tamale that he called Wire
as he lead Tamale behind. Now, the way I heard the story, Uncle Trent tried every
way to gracefully get out of the horse race but Emilio pushed him into it by calling him not very
nice names and insulting his horses. When it got past the point of common sense, Emilio bet
Bandito against Wire and scheduled the race for the next day at noon. The town mayor laid
down the pattern and distance of the race after some drinks at the local tavern. The race was
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