Diane M Cece

Christmas Sleigh Ride Diane M Cece

Tyler Lacey was riding down the cattle trail, looking for strays along the upper mountain ranges of the Flying T2 Rough Stock and Cattle Ranch. It was his job this month to be the line rider and move the cattle and strays to the lower meadows before winter set in.

He was just about to ride deeper into the woods to look for more strays, when he heard the sound of a wagon coming up the narrow trail. He knew it had no business being up here on the upper range land of his family's ranch. Deciding to check it out to see what was going on, he walked his horse Biscuit down the trail to see the approaching wagon. At first glance, he was startled to see a young woman at the reins of an old small canvass-covered wagon.

Calico Gunderson had made two wrong turns with her mule team on the way to her uncle's Broken Arrow Ranch outside Smithville, Arizona. She found herself going up a mountain trail in the wrong direction. The trail was getting very narrow the farther along she drove, and she found she could not turn the mule team and wagon around. She halted the wagon and picked up her shotgun in self-defense when she noticed a rider coming down the cattle trail toward her.