Ramul & Rascal
How do you sit down and try to tell people about a legend? I met Ramul Dvarishkis when I was a small boy. My father was Sheriff for 28 yrs. in Thermopolis Wyo. He used to take me with him when he served papers out in the county, or when he was patrolling the backroads. The highlight of those trips was going to Owl Creek, to the Padlock Ranch, later named the Arapohoe Ranch, and on over the divide to Hamilton Dome and Cottonwood Creek to visit with Ramul and Jessie and the family.
In high school during the summers I worked for the Forest Service out of Meeteetsee, under Ray Hall and Bob Jacobs, 2 fine horseman and rangers. This is some of the most remote and rugged back country from Thermopolis to Cody and into Yellowstone Park. All the horses used on the trail crew were contracted from Ramul Dvarishkis. Right after graduation, in ”67, I joined the Marines, spent my senior vacation in a place called Vietnam. ( I must be going to heaven, because I have been to hell). I spent a lot of time thinking back, on home, family, my dad, the high country and Ramul’s horses. I can say that is what kept me alive. When I arrived back home it was winter, bitter cold, and the 1st morning home Ramul called and asked if I would come out to the ranch and go to work for him. Well, from 1970 until he got sick and died at 95 we were together, riding, showing horses, traveling down the highway, seeing new places, some windshield time, sometimes just talking, and part of the time riding his famous Morgan horses. He was one of a kind, a true gentleman, not a very big man in size but tough as rawhide and nails and when you went riding with Ramul just for a day, or a week, or a month during elk and mountain sheep hunting season, you knew you were lucky to be in the company of a legend. I am fortunate enough to remember the horses, the trails, the campfires, the stories, along with the memories of Ramul and the times we spent together. I can still remember the twinkle in his eyes when he would look at me and grin and say, “This is where I belong, Stan. I want to show you another trail I haven’t been over in 30 years”, so off we went. Looking back on it now, years later, I can still see Ramul riding his Morgans and still remember the twinkle in his eyes and the smile on his face.
This man touched so many in his life – now that is a legend.
Ramuls horses are foundation bred, as are mine. Don’t just look at the studs, or mares, some of the great ones happen to be geldings and that is the mark of a great stud or mare. Ramul furnished this nation with some of the finest Morgans in western history. I have in my memory bank 100′s of names of horses that Ramul raised, and sold to people all over the world. So take a moment to look at the pictures of horses and visualize, if you can, riding the high country with Ramul, the legend. I am proud to say I did and I am.
