Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Monday, October 29, 2018

Milliron Monday: Jody 10 29 18


Abbott "Pete" Smith, D.V.M.
June 16, 1938 - February 22, 2010

Welcome to Milliron Monday where every Monday we celebrate the legacy of Pete Smith, D.V.M., and  Milliron: Abbott “Pete” Smith, D.V.M. The Biography (Monday Creek Publishing 2017). A graduate of Colorado State University and a well-known veterinarian in southeast, Ohio, Dr. Smith continues to motivate and inspire. 

After high school, Pete enrolled in Colorado A&M, Fort Collins, Colorado; becoming Colorado State University in 1957. There he met Jody, the love of his life. From Milliron: Abbott "Pete" Smith, D.V.M. The Biography - Chapter 3: Pete and Jody...

In the fall of 1956, Jody met Pete on the first day of class. Jody shines as she recalls the moment. “It was an Honors English Class. I remember what a good-looking guy he was. I noticed him right away. It was not love at first sight, it was attraction at first sight.”
They became good friends, sharing horse stories and studying together. Pete was dating Jody’s Tri-Delta roommate, Janet “Simmy” Simmons, a South High School classmate of Pete’s. Jody was working at the college bookstore, earning extra cash to help pay for boarding her horse, Starboy. Pete would stop in the bookstore and ask Jody to give messages to Simmy, but he also liked to talk to Jody about horses. “One time he showed me a black and white 8 x 10 picture of him riding a beautiful horse. I said, ‘Oh, that’s the most gorgeous Morgan I’ve ever seen.’ He archly explained that the stallion was Witezar, a son of one of the most famous Polish Arabians, Witez II, who had been rescued along with other Arabians and Lipizzans by General Patton near the end of World War II. Pete loved that horse. He spent a lot of time backing Witezar up in irrigation ditches to develop gaskin muscles.”
      As their friendship grew, Pete stopped dating Simmy and asked Jody out for a date. “Pete usually invited Simmy to the quarterly dance held by the veterinary school,” Jody says. “This time he invited me to go with him. I said I couldn’t until I checked with Simmy. He seemed to find that amusing but said to let him know what we decided. When I got off work and back to the sorority house, Simmy and I discussed the turn of events. Simmy said, ‘He asked you. Go with him if you want.’ He did and I did. To jump ahead a bit, Simmy was my maid of honor at our wedding. I chased Pete two years before I caught him. I had a lovely time at the vet dances as they somehow managed to get excellent country western artists, some of whom became well-known stars. 


Share your stories and photos of Dr. Smith. 
Email to mondaycreekpublishing@gmail.com 
Through captivating, powerful, and emotional anecdotes, we celebrate the life of Dr. Abbott P. Smith. His biography takes the reader from smiles to laughter to empathy and tears. Dr. Smith gave us compelling lessons learned from animals; the role animals play in the human condition, the joy of loving an animal, and the awe of their spirituality. A tender and profound look into the life of a skilled veterinarian.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Monday, October 22, 2018

Milliron Monday: The Notebook 10 22 18


Abbott "Pete" Smith, D.V.M.
June 16, 1938 - February 22, 2010

Welcome to Milliron Monday where every Monday we celebrate the legacy of Pete Smith, D.V.M., and  Milliron: Abbott “Pete” Smith, D.V.M. The Biography (Monday Creek Publishing 2017). A graduate of Colorado State University and a well-known veterinarian in southeast, Ohio, Dr. Smith continues to motivate and inspire. Follow along every Milliron Monday to revisit Dr. Smith's biography. 

Stored in a box of important papers, Jody Smith found Pete's high school notebook. The notebook contained homework, graded with comments by the teacher. A treasure of a find, Pete had written stories and poems of his high school days. Pete's children had never seen the notebook; they never read the stories. For Pat, Pete's son, I was inspired to place all of Pete's high school stories and poems into one collection - The South High Horseman: Stories and Poems by a Teen Cowboy. Here is an excerpt...

Another Horse to Break

 I sat on the top pole of the weatherbeaten corral contemplating the four-year-old sorrel stallion which was standing by the far wall.
“He sure is a beauty, isn’t he Burl?” I said more than asked.
“He’s all right,” was the reply, “he’ll make a good horse once he’s gentled down.”
There was silence again as Burl took a sack of Bull Durham from his left shirt pocket. He opened the sack with his teeth, a thumb, and a forefinger. Taking a cigarette paper from the side of the sack, he held it between his thumb and forefinger and made a trough into which he poured a little pile of dry brown tobacco. He pulled the drawstrings shut and put the sack back in his pocket. The lithe muscular fingers smoothed out the stuff, and with a rolling motion of thumbs and forefingers he enveloped it in the fine white paper. He licked the cigarette along the seam and twisting one end put the other between his lips.
Lighting a match on his Levis, he held it cupped in his tanned and calloused hands while he lit his cigarette; then rubbing the burned out match with his fingers, he held it by the tip and dropped it into the dirt.
“You know what I’d like to see?”
“No, what?”
“A wild horseshoeing contest.”
“That’s about the only thing they didn’t have at Cheyenne this year.”
We looked again at the horse. He sure was a dandy.
“What do you say we do it like they do in the wild horse racing at Cheyenne?”
“All right by me; let’s go.”
I took my nylon rope and started walking.
“I’ll squeeze him past you along the fence,” Burl volunteered.
“All right, I’ll catch him and let him pull me around till you get there. Then we can work up to him along the rope, and - well, no need making any long range plans, I guess.”
Burl went around him, and the horse started past me along the fence. I caught him and held on. Burl got there, and together we worked up to him along the thirty-three feet of rope. We finally got to his head.
“You want to mug him while I go get the saddle?” I asked.
“O.K.”
I held the rope while Burl clamped on to the poor critter’s head with the vice-like grip of a bulldogger and sank his teeth into the horse’s right ear.
The saddle, bridle, and blanket were huddled in the corner. I got them and went back to Burl and the horse.
Throwing the sheepskin blanket on, I cinched up the saddle and took the rope.
“You can let go of Reddy’s ear now if you want to,” I said.
He did.
I forced the horse’s jaws, slipped in the snaffle bit, and adjusted the bridle while Burl held the rope. It was a beat-up old bridle with no jowl strap or even a curb. Somehow I was really attached to the old thing though. It was just right for the job since I didn’t have a hackamore. Couldn’t hurt his mouth with some accidental sharp pull like if you were using a spade bit. Still you could discipline him.
Gripping the reins beneath his quivering lower lip, I gave a last look at the rigging.
I passed the right rein over his neck, and pulling his head to the left, I mounted him easily and confidently. It seemed strange to me how I was always nervous while fooling around with a horse that I knew was going to buck. Once I was on him the feeling disappeared and everything in me solidified; my whole system settled down. It felt good up there.
Automatically I took a deep seat and swinging my stirrups slightly forward leaned just a little bit back; then as I took a long rein, he felt the slack and started giving me everything he had.
Explaining how I feel when I’m riding a bucking horse is hard. There’s an odd sensation of knowing the horse is bucking, but there’s no real feeling to it. It’s like fighting, in that I’m kind of numb through the rest of the fight after the first wallop.
As the horse bucked I suddenly began to feel off balance. The horse felt it too, and with a sudden burst of earnest bucking he unloaded me solidly into the corral fence. I wonder what it would be like to fly. I was probably in the air long enough to find out.
Had the horse been one of the stock buckers we kept around for rodeo purposes I would have felt like calling it a day, but you can’t do that when you’re breaking a horse. If you’re still whole you’ve got to get back on and ride him out. The worst thing I could have done would have been to let the son of a gun think that he had accomplished something by throwing me.
It was for these reasons that I gathered myself from the fence and ambled over to the horse. I happened to glance at Burl just then. He was meditating over a spot on his hand with as straight a face as you’d hope to see.
I managed to corner the horse and taking the reins, I again mounted him. He shied badly as I got on, and for a minute I thought I was done for, but somehow I stayed with him. For what seemed like a long time he tossed and turned, bucked, crow hopped, and bucked again, never sparing me a second’s rest.
Bucking is hard on a horse though; it jars his every bone, raises havoc with his joints, and pulls his muscles besides taking a lot of energy. A good minute of that is approximately equal to a good day’s work.
Four minutes of hard amateur bucking and this horse was through. He stopped, and in short, jumpy steps started walking.


You will find all of Pete's stories in The South High Horseman. If you have a copy, please write a review. 

If you have a story photo, or other memory to share about Dr. Smith, please send it to mondaycreekpublishing@gmail.com to be included in Tails of a Country Vet Volume II.
Through captivating, powerful, and emotional anecdotes, we celebrate the life of Dr. Abbott P. Smith. His biography takes the reader from smiles to laughter to empathy and tears. Dr. Smith gave us compelling lessons learned from animals; the role animals play in the human condition, the joy of loving an animal, and the awe of their spirituality. A tender and profound look into the life of a skilled veterinarian.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Monday, October 15, 2018

Milliron Monday: Coyote Pete 10 15 18



Abbott "Pete" Smith, D.V.M.
June 16, 1938 - February 22, 2010

Welcome to Milliron Monday where every Monday we celebrate the legacy of Pete Smith, D.V.M., and  Milliron: Abbott “Pete” Smith, D.V.M. The Biography (Monday Creek Publishing 2017). A graduate of Colorado State University and a well-known veterinarian in southeast, Ohio, Dr. Smith continues to motivate and inspire. Follow along every Milliron Monday to revisit Dr. Smith's biography. 

Besides his love of animals, Pete was a gifted writer. During high school, he wrote essays about his life as a teen cowboy and life in general. He also penned poems, giving us insight into his life on the range, horses, and more. A year before the launch of Milliron, Jody, Pete's widow, found a notebook of Pete's high school essays, including this poem...


Coyote Pete

Behind the chutes the boys was crouched
Their whole attention spent
On drawin’ straws and hopin’ for
A hoss as was hell-bent.

Jick drawed a hoss named Coyote Pete
Like in the comic strip
And stretched his legs and waited for
His turn to make the trip.

The doggin’ came, the barebacks went
(The ropin’ was plumb through.)
And then at last came saddle broncs and
One last swig ‘o ‘dew.

The saddle – she was cinched up tight
The flank strap was drawed down
Jick eased onto that bronc’s back
And gave a look aroun’!

He tucked his hat and stuck his spurs
Into “Coyote’s” shoulder blades
Then he whispered “Let ‘im out,”
And things began to blaze.

That hoss went ten feet in the air
An’ crashed into the fences
He whirled and bucked and kicked and ran
Like ‘s if he’d lost ‘is senses!

But ol’ Jick hung to like a burr
An’ never give an inch
For since the very first he had
Been hangin’ to the fence.

More next week about the hidden essays and Pete's adventures, including more horses. Speaking of horses... every horse person in the State of Ohio is probably at the All American Quarter Horse Congress right now. The Congress is the event of the year (oh, yeah, Equine Affaire is up there, too) for Ohio horse people and the USA in general. It is the largest one-breed horse show in the world, and it's in my own backyard (an hour away). If you're at Congress and purchase a souvenir program, check out our advertisement for Milliron. We appreciate connecting with you. Enjoy Congress (while I am home cleaning stalls today and enjoying my own Quarter Horses). Maybe I'll see you there next week. Thanks, Pete, for loving horses as much as I do.

If you have a story photo, or other memory to share about Dr. Smith, please send it to mondaycreekpublishing@gmail.com to be included in Tails of a Country Vet Volume II.

Connect with Gina


Through captivating, powerful, and emotional anecdotes, we celebrate the life of Dr. Abbott P. Smith. His biography takes the reader from smiles to laughter to empathy and tears. Dr. Smith gave us compelling lessons learned from animals; the role animals play in the human condition, the joy of loving an animal, and the awe of their spirituality. A tender and profound look into the life of a skilled veterinarian.

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Thursday, October 11, 2018

Shavonda Robinson, Poet and Author



Shavonda Robinson

Uncovered Scars

Burned bridges are unhealed wounds
Underneath the surface that no one wants
To bother until it is realized.



Author Bio
Shavonda Robinson is an author of…
Thy Paintbrush Of Abstracting Images
Hidden Voices Of Abuse For Women All Around The World
Your Worst Nightmare
I am A Free Woman Poems For A Little Girl
Moving Phrases Into Inspiration
Wear Your Purpose Like It's A Fashion Statement
Poems Cries Out Beautiful Songs
Saving Our Youth
Love Scenes
Love Memories In The Rain
She is an award winning, published songwriter and poet.
She has published in many anthologies and magazines.
She has a degree in Creative Writing.
She is the founder of "Creative Something For The Future" an online poetry magazine for upcoming poets and writers.
She has two beautiful children.
She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.




Tuesday, October 9, 2018

The Vacation Vaquera: An Interview With Donna Shade

The Vacation Vacquera @ Hocking Hills, Ohio USA The Vacation Vaquera: An Interview With Donna Shade By Gina McKnight No Duplication Withou...