While stationed at Luke AFB Arizonia, I had several horses. One of them, A Paso Fino was real skittish about anything on the ground. One night my Girlfriend (now my wife) and I decided to go for a midnight ride, out into the dessert. We would ride out to these big irrigation wells, then go swimming in the large holding tanks (they were like swimming pools). While we were swimming a bunch of cars showed up with local teenagers, who had the same idea. We all swam for a while then Michelle and I decided to leave. As we were ridding away, one of the guys drove out to meet us. He wanted me to go buy them some beer. I refused, but he kept trying to convence me to do it anyway. While he was talking, my horse Charro started dancing around like something was bothering him. Suddenly he reared up and jumped right into the back seat of this convertiable. The driver went out over the windshield. Charro stepped over into the front seat and continued to dance around. Finally Charro reared up and jumped out of the car, then took off running. I had my hands full trying to stop him. When I finally got him stopped, Michelle came riding up and said there were rattle snakes everywhere back there. The driver of the car had jumped back in his car and drove off real fast. Never seen that kid again. I know that 850 lb horse did some serious damage to the seats in that car, but we never heard anything about it in the local community. We found out Charro was afraid of rattlesnakes.
