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OLD
WEST LEGENDS
Some American Riders |
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By Colonel Theodore
Ayrault Dodge in 1891 |
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The
cowboy
is in the saddle more than any man on the Plains. He rides what is well
known as the
cowboy's
saddle, or Brazos tree. It is adapted from the old Spanish saddle -- is,
in fact, almost similar -- and differs sensibly from the Mexican. The line
of its seat from cantle to horn, viewed sidewise, is a semicircle; there
is no fiat place to sit on. This shape gives the
cowboy,
seen from the side, all but as perpendicular a seat in the saddle as the
old knight in armor. There are, of course, other saddles in use. The Texas
saddle has a much flatter seat than the Brazos tree; the Cheyenne saddle a
still flatter one, with a high cantle and a different cut of pommel arch
and bearing; and some individuals may ride any peculiar saddle. But all
must have the horn and high cantle. In no other tree would the
cowboy
be at home or fit for service.
The
cowboy
is careful of his ponies, not only from a horseman’s motives, but
because he is held to account for them. Unlike the
Indian,
he rarely has a sore-backed nag. He often uses a gunny-bag saddle-cloth
next the pony’s skin -- the hempen fiber of which keeps the back cool --
and over this, for padding, his woolen blanket.
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Saddling the bronco, Erwin E. Smith, 1910.
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE!
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In the Southwest he is apt
to sport a variegated saddle-cloth with fringed edge, such as the
Mexicans parade; and if he can manage to get hold of a Navajo blanket,
he is fixed. These wonderful bits of handwork, of bright pleasing
colors are worth from fifty dollars upward, never seem to wear out,
and are by long odds the best thing under a saddle which exists. The
Indian will give from two ponies upward for one of them, when he can
buy a wife for one pony, and not a very good pony (or wife) at that.
The
cowboy’s saddle is held in place by one very
wide or two narrower hair cinchas, though the single cincha is more a
Californian habit. If one, it is on the Plains always put a full
hand-breadth back of what in the East we call the girth-place. The
rear girth gets a purchase on the back slope of the ribs.
The
cowboy’s bit is any kind of a curb with a
long gag. He rides under all conditions with a loose rein, the bit
ends of which are of chain, which clanks a rhythmic jingle to his easy
lope. His pony is as surefooted as a mountain goat, and will safely
scramble with his big load up a cliff, or slide down a bank which
would make our tenderfoot hair stand on end. The loose rein and the
sharp gag enable the
cowboy
with the least jerk to pull his pony back on his haunches, for the
pony is unused to a steady hold. The
cowboy
is not a three-legged rider. The bit hangs in a fancy trade bridle,
which the
cowboy
ornaments in various fashions to suit his own ideas of style. The
effect of its use on the pony is precisely the reverse of that which
is made by a bit on a horse supplied by school methods or even bitted,
and which has been ridden on a light touch. The latter brings down his
head to the hand, with an arched neck, easy mouth, and a give-and-take
feel of the hand. The pony at the least intimation of the bit, long
before the rein is taut, jerks up his head, and must have a tough
mouth or an exceptional fright to make him take hold of you.
The most striking part of the
cowboy’s rig is the chaperajos, or huge
leather overalls, he is apt to wear. These originated in the mesquite
or chaparral country, where the cattle business had its on-gill, and
where jeans or a pair of the best cords will be torn to shreds in a
day.
When the
chaperajos are seen out of this region, they have been retained from
force of habit. This singular garment is made of cowhide, weighs five
or six pounds, and used invariably to have the edge cut into a long
fringe, but this ornamentation has begun to disappear. It boasts no
seat, which could with difficulty be made to fit. On the left leg of
the chaperajos is a pocket for cigarettes or chewing tobacco, matches,
and small sundries. The chaperajos could not comfortably be worn in
any other saddle than one which gave a short, upright, "forked-radish”
seat.
They are too much like trousers made of stove-pipe.
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Cowboy lighting the range fire, Frederic Remington,
Harper's
Weekly, July, 1891. |
At the
cowboy's
saddle-bow usually hangs a rawhide or hair or Mexican grass
rope, from forty feet long upward, to use for every purpose, from roping
cattle to
hauling out a mired team; and his rifle, a seventy-three Winchester, rests
crosswise
at the horn, in a broad pouch-like strap, which protects the lock from
injury, or is
slung under the left leg, where it can lie with equal security. He boasts
few riches.
What he has is apt to be in dollars, or occasionally a few steers. He buys
a pair
of eighteen-dollar boots, a pair of fifteen dollar gloves, and the rest of
his rig and
dress is scarcely worth a five-dollar bill.
Broncos with manners are like angels visits. The
cowboy’s bronco is never what we
should call half broken. By the time he has been ridden enough to be well
broken in, lie is usually all broken up. He is a difficult fellow to
mount, being ridden but once every four or five days. If he were not so
small, one could never mount him without assistance. He will back away,
plunge forward, swerve, kick, strike, squeal, rush full at you with mouth
wide open, or perform a hundred other antics which would compel us
simple-minded park riders to hurry him off to the nearest auction-room. He
is, in fact, what we are wont to characterize as a "dangerous brute.”
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But the
cowboy
can always see him and go him one better. He approaches him at the left
shoulder, and gathers the rein in his left hand. Not infrequently he puts
his hand over the pony’s eye while he grabs the left stirrup and gets his
foot in it, following up the broncos antics as best he may.
Then, grabbing the pommel with the right hand and the
pony’s withers with the left, and if possible getting his left elbow in
the hollow of the neck just forward of the withers, nothing which the pony
can do can keep him out of the saddle. In fact, a plunge which drags him
from his feet will all the more certainly swing him to his seat. Then,
after a series of bucks, more or less severe, during which his spurs go
time and again into the pony’s flanks, the mastery is established where it
properly belongs, and harmony, such as it is, reigns till the next time of
mounting.
The
cowboy
universally rides a lope, as do all people who use wild horses. The bronco
has no other gait, in fact, unless a sort of fox-trot. The
cowboy’s seat is unsuited to an open trot. He
wont ride it if he can help it; and, it may as well be confessed, he
cannot -- and no one can – sit close without pounding to the long rangy
trot of a big thorough-bred, though it is the perfection of gaits if you
rise to it. We hear from many that the
cowboy
can do everything. Rumors run that some of Buffalo Bills
cowboys rode English
horses in their own saddles, and beat everything to hounds in the midland
counties. Those who know that country and its riders accept this statement
cum grano [with a grain of salt.] But assume its truth. One often sees a dare-devil of an
English lad just out of college who imagines, because he has once or twice
led the field on one of the squire a crack hunters, that he is the best
rider in it. But, in truth, he is risking his horses, not to count his own
neck, at every obstacle he clears, and pumping the last ounce out of his
generous beast, while
wiser and older riders close behind him are saving their horses, and
bringing them
in fresh and able. It is not riding a fabulous distance, or at the
greatest speed, or
with the most conspicuous daring, which is the test, but getting in at the
death with
the least exertion to man and beast. The highest proof of artistic
horsemanship is
to accomplish your task with the least expenditure of physical force. To
keep the
horse in good condition is among civilized people a greater test than the
speed or
daring of the rider. So in the great tests of distance made by Plains
ponies and
civilized horses one element is apt to be forgotten. The latter must be
brought
in without injury; the pony may be killed by the feat. No question
whatever that
if the pony and the thorough-bred, under even conditions, be ridden until
both fall
in their tracks, the pony will be beaten in speed and distance.
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Continued Next Page
Also See:
The
American Cowboy
The
Cattle Trails
Cattle Trails of the Prairie
Cowboys on the American Frontier
List of
Trail Blazers, Riders, & Cowboys
The Range of
the American West
Tales & Trails of the
American West
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The
Cowboy, 1888, photo by John C.H. Graybill
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE!
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I wish I could find words to express
the trueness, the bravery, the hardihood, the sense of honor, the loyalty
to their trust and to each other of the old trail hands.
-- Charles Goodnight\
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