My internet acquaintence, (I will call her Jo here)
The "secluded cabins in the middle of the reservation" turned out to be a broken down motel in the heart of Hot Springs, Montana which IS, by the way in the middle of the Flat Head Reservation.
Her "Happy Horse Heaven Hills" 'Breeding Ranch' turned out to be 3-4 underfed, poorly cared for horses pastured in broken down barbed wire fencing on a local cattle ranch where daily I found and removed boards with nails sticking out of them, odd pieces of barb wire and asorted pieces of odd metal. The hay she feeds these horses isn't fit to feed to scrub cattle. In fact she brags she received it free from a local cattle rancher who felt it was too inferior to feed to his cattle. I would not even use it for bedding for fear of the possible ill health that could result from them eating it. Personally, I would not feed that hay to goats!
The first week there, I spent doctoring and handling a young colt belonging to Jo's friend (will call her Lina here) who had been kicked repeatedly and had a large gash on his left hock that had become infected. All a result of the poor fencing provided and allowing a young stud colt to be loose in a pasture with 2-3 mares with 1 or more of them in heat.
Within a day or 2 after healing the colt to a point further treatment was not necessary, Jo came to me very upset that her "Appaloosa Stallion" (Will call him One SPOT here) had been kicked and was badly injured. She was very upset and worried about him and would I go help her doctor him? Of course, I was ready to go in minutes. When we arrived at the corral where the stallion was being held, his Genitalia was swollen to 3 x normal. It was a sick black color with smears of blood, and bent at a 90 degree angel from what is normal.
We (I with her sitting by supervising) began a schedule of doses of Antibiotics, anti inflammatories and observation.
A week later he looked little different than the first day. Mind you, this Stallion was in a wooden cattle corral with numerous SPIKES protruding through the various broken boards of the long neglected fencing.
In addition, he had another stud colt in the corral next to his, AND 3 mares in the pasture on the other side of his corral & 2 of them were in heat!
NOT an ideal spot for a stallion with a possibly fractured penis to be in where, if he wasn't instinctively wanting to fight with the young stallion next to him he was aroused and interested in breeding one or more of the mares on the other side.
I am sure that constant excitement and arousal delayed the healing process considerably.
Having finally gotten the swelling down to what could be considered ALMOST normal, he and all 5-6 of the other horses on the ranch including a 3-4 month old baby, developed symptoms of severe colds or some other more deadly disease; any one of several possibilities.
While beginning an immunization program, the mare with the weanling beside her discovered the electric fence wasnt working and tried to bolt through the gate area.
After Lina and I "rescuing" Jo, I spent some time checking and fixing the electric fence where it was shorting out in 5-6 different places.
As a joke, when I thought I had it working again, I reached for the fence with my left hand & toward Jo with my right, and said "Here Jo, lets test it", with a smile on my face because I was only teasing. Anyone who knows me KNOWS I would NEVER do such a thing to human or animal.
Needless to say, Jo "went ballistic" on me, called me every foul name in the book, and used language that would have made a sailor blush. This neurotic woman accused me of trying to KILL her by stopping her pace maker with the shock from the electric fence!
I wondered if perhaps I was relly asleep & this was just a bad dream!
Linda took Jo home & came back & she & I finished up the electric fence, & I drove back to the "cabins" and was greeted with an icq message stating
"Get out of my mother's apartment! Get out of HERE!
Or I am calling the cops!"
I replied calmy - "No problem, I am leaving, but would like to talk first, then repeated my apology for having used poor judgement in a joke with her but assuring her of no ill intent.
She did not respond, so after packing my van, & before leaving I knocked on her door to try to apologize and explain again. She came to the door screaming (while her face was bulging and turning purple) at the top of her lungs for me to "GO! GO! GET OUT OF HERE!"
and then proceeded to open the door, step right up in my face and jump up and down, pumping her fisted hands up and down and screaming like a 2 year old who had been deprived of his bottle!
So a few minutes before I was ready to go she jumped in her car and drove recklessly out of the drive. I wrote her a note including another apology, and with the motel key attached I left it on her front door.
And within 2 hours, (after my muffler had fallen off 2-3 days before) I was on the way to have the muffler fixed, my starter quit working because one of 2 bolts holding it in place had broken off in the block allowing the starter to twist & the teeth would not mesh with the flywheel.
So Billy the mechanic at the Casino held the starter in place while I started the egine.
Followed big George 12 miles out of town to his 40 acre spread with multiple vehicles in varying degree of dilapidation, lay at odd angles over the rolling acreage.
We worked till dark removing starters from various vehicles, none of which would fit my frankenstein van.
So we slept on it and borrowed a cordless drill, we went to town & bought a drill bit and an easy out and removed the broken bolt, replaced it and tightened both down snugly.
Then a quick clamp and baling wired the old muffler back in place, I was on the road again!