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Show newearners would become just as wild 9s tha mygades-- spooky, had to catch, and dif-ficult tn confroi when caught. Rye Bptt told hnw me night some caw-boys put a bunch af mws thy had hen - ding up inb a small mrrd tB hdd thgtn until the nefi day. Sjnce them were a f a wlld oms in the bunch, om & the cbwbys objected when the boss told the men to tie- a muple. dnigh t hores to the corraI posts* The boss replied c d p , ' That carral'is made of cdars. I built it myself. They won? get out of there," Shortly after midnight wne of the night h qsho ok his saddle, Th ELMUd the s&- mps% motdh er saddle, f ittings was tw much fw& e had, an$ the corn stampeded, They went right though that cedar hce, taking do- S~ VGA panels a @ wphg th~ eec uws to d ~ && tbv fled. Ordinary range cattle might stmipde at night fm triv-ial causw, bat wfld cattle inkeased the Likelihond. Cowmen tried to eliminate wild stnck by taking all they could capture b market* This was difficult. Not every cowboy could , batch wild critters. Trr do so requimd a spkiaZ Ed of cowboy, both gifted and reckless. He have one of the tap ktwrses in tb country, clever as well as speedy. The pony had ta have zhe whole business in his h d . There was little time. for a rider to give dimtiam when mashing through the trees & er s Iuaga+ Charlie R~ ddw, ho built up Cmm- H Ranch in San Jum Caunty, gave a lively ac-count ofhedhase: " Just c& hing. up with the wild r; attte was a sort of victory d1 in itself. Far a cowboy cwldnY bwin tn dodge all the bees in his way. He had to hit many of them and hit them so hard that he'd break the limbs. Both horse a d rider had to have pretty fair judgment about how big a tree and how big a Limb would break. But they could never hesitate. " You did it partly becaue it was pour job and yoor Iiveliband depspded an it, and as you set mt you usually ra& et hated ta find the wild calfla because you knew that when you did yuu were gahg to be in fm iwme heavy bruises. It was deadly earnest business, But once you got underway, both you and the hme gat the fml of it, md then the excite-ment swept you along, and nothing but a crippling pile- up wuld stop you. " YOTI wesa ohnvmy gIadwhkn the chase was wsr, especkUy if yau had a nice two-year- old tied to a pinyon be. The sati&' faction you felt was not merely awing to the $ 18.011 your critter would bring if you got it wt to he railroad, It was also the, hunger far victory that must have made those m kbo ys go after the wild bars with nothing but a spear. '& dothim& e lse mattered but getting your erit-te. " Usually the & wbQys made rides fm wild a t t hi n tlib late whkr'o~ ea jclysping when the cows had just come through the hard part af the y m and were a little weak. The mm chaed the , critters c3n s ht, grain- fed horses. They needed this advantam for even so. it was buch and go whether a horse carrying a 4o- paund saddle and a man with baob ~ d chaps could overtake a Iongear running free in the rocks and bees. Winter also gave the cowboy two mare advantages he needed. First, it was easier m locate the animals by their tracks. More im-pedant, when a rider jumped a critter in heavy snow, it had to break the trail, The horse had much easier ping just following almg. Whher chasing wild cows in snow or in sand, the cowboy had only mdea beginning when he caught up with his critter. He then had to rope it and get the caw back to the ranch and so to market. Raping was a tricky business in the bees, as John D. Rogers ex-plained: ARTIST: J. ROMAN ANDRUS - ARTIST: J. ROMAN ANDRUS " You cauldn't ray that rope on in my fancy way like these trick ropm in the md- sas because of the thick hm. Here's whe* a good fast tree horse ear~~ ehdis money. He'd get you right up them, bornpin' an the dm's heels where you could lean over and layyaur loop right aver his horns easy like, Then you'd bust him. When bis head whipped amund behind him and his belly went into the air, if youhurriad you wuld g~ t~ hihmog - tied before he even Med to get up. " Of came, a cowboy was in luckif he got his steer hogtied in those few seconds, be-cause any critter alder fiaa a catf 01- p ~ d i n ' mu1 d most likely get up full of fight. Oldm cows and steers hnd long, s h p horns which were wicked and vicious, and a bull's strength md quickness could give you a scare. But a good horse would keep the rope taut and the animal stref~ hedo ut. Widnut that perhaps yau* d just as weU sot try.'' Gradually the punchers worked out a routine for handling the wild animals, The first step after hogtying was to get rid of those murderous horns. Clarence Rogers described the technique this way: " Every puncher carried a small k~ yhole saw in a scabbard tied to his saddle, and a soan as he had a critter hogtied he'd cut of€ his h m with this saw, leaving only shart stubs, just long enough to keep a hehdrope from slipping off. Once he'd sawed off those horns and drawed up the headrope tight under the stubs, he'd tie a h o t around the nearest pinyon, not too tight but what the rope would slip ' round the tree when the animal circled it, and then untie the critter's Iags. Of course, the brute would fight the tree and rope, but the more he fought, the more tender his head became at the base of the ham and the better ha was gentled for Imd-ing out when the time came. UstdIy you'd Ieave your tied up for a day or two, but if it w& a bull or some other big stout animal, you might leave it longer."' Cutkg o£€ the critter's h m s and " gent-lid him downq' were essential steps, hecause the next phase in the muthe was leading the animal off to a holding pen. John 13. Rogers explained this pat: " You didn't need to bring your kt horse ' cause most my horse could lead a steer if 4e b w hk business, He* d have to crowd the steer, wMch was snubbed right up to your 30 saddle horn. The steer would rear back, and push, and by to hook, but you'd cut off his horns to pmvent that hookin'. He'd jump around, but the horse wadd keep crowdin' him. When the stem would break b rua, why the horse w~ uldgo with him, a dd when he'd stop and st& pImW again, t4e hms w d d just keep crawdin' hhn. " Of cdmse, a man and hi$ horse, got bruised aplenty by those stub horns, and the pud~ er'sr ight leg was black and blue clear down to his d e , B ut if his ho~ se, heww hen to crowd and when to give, he muld . gen&- dly handle the cdttew. We" d lead them do-to where we had a IWe ho1hg cmyon fenced off under & a rim, They% find a lift113 grass and water in there, and we* d leave them in for a few clays and then if we'd gathered enough, we? d teach hem to drive and take am out to m.*' What the critters had to learn far the drive into tom was to heed a man on a horse- to turn when he rode out i n h n t of khern. If a critter broke fram the hunch and refwd to turn acowby roped it and led it back. Same-times this happened five or six times, But gradually mast OF the critters learned that they had to turn for a horse. Then they were ready to be & vfin tn town. The wild cows had been chased, roped. hogtied, dehorned, tied to a tree, led on a short ropa to a holding pen, and taught how drive. Despite dI & is, wh. en the bars were dropped md the herd was headed fm town, t h e was generally some headstrong old ant-law that gut away. Mr. Yousg is professor emerItuS nf & ngli% h at Brigham Young Uniwrsity. A 10- m i o n of this d-cle was publishbd in the mmmm 2964 issue d Utah Historical Qunrterfy. ARTIST: J. ROMAN ANMU% |
