Uncle Ray was such a big part of my life and shared the same enthusiasm for horses as I did. He was such a wealth of knowledge in the running horse pedigrees and understanding the history of bloodlines. We would regularly shoot the breeze, check cattle, discuss principles of horsemanship, and his personal favorite past time was to set up targets for us to plink shoot at.
Deer season was a significant time for Ray and he was the first to call me about coming over to hunt or to see if I had bagged a deer. My dad, Fred, (his brother) loved deer season as much as he did and it was a family event full of wonderful memories for me growing up. Im sure they are both meeting now and debating who has the better horse or better shot. Dad always joked that Rays initials of C.M. stood for “Clean Miss” when it came to shooting ability and it was an annual ritual for them at deer season to discuss all the times each one of them missed the deer of a lifetime because of their alleged poor marksmanship. LOL.
Both Ray and dad proclaimed themselves as cowboy poets and it resulted in some of the most brilliantly hilarious, Hillbilly/redneck themed works of literature known to man. Ray was an expert at roasting people (namely my dad) through his poems and was well known for his entertaining family reunion letters.
Forever missing you Uncle Ray! 💙
