HistoryHistory
Horses were furnished by the ranch or trail outfit the cowboy was working for. If he had a horse, he kept it with the ranch's common pool of horses as long as he was employed there. Usually, he was given the use of perhaps six or eight horses by the rancher or trail boss who hired him. Saddle horses were ridden hard, and a man might change mounts several times a day. As long as a cowboy stayed with an outfit, the string of horses assigned to him were his, as surely as if he did own them. If a boss wanted a man to quit, he would take the cowboy's favorite horse away from him. That always meant that the cowboy should leave of his own accord before he had to be fired.
Most of these horses were mustang ponies, which ran wild on the western plains. A hardy breed - small, tough, and fast - they were captured and tamed by both the Plains Indians and by white settlers in the West. Cowboys preferred them to the larger horses imported from the East. "Beautiful little creatures they were - generally cream, buckskin, or mouse - colored," recalled a Texas cowboy named James Cook. " As a rule they were clean limbed, and their hoofs were black and perfect. No blacksmith or hoof-shaper had ever tinkered with their feet or forced them to wear iron shores, and their hoofs would stand wear over the roughest trails. They required no grain, but rustled food for themselves."
Mustangs came from open rangeland, where they roamed free until about the age of four. Every spring, these four-year-olds were captured, driven to corrals, then tamed to the saddle and trained. Taming was called "breaking" or "busting," which meant that the animal's wild spirit was literally "broken" as the horse learned to fear, respect, and obey its rider. A bronco buster might be any local cowboy who was a good rider, or he might be a professional buster who traveled from ranch to ranch.
There was no easy way to break a wild bronco that had never been ridden . The struggling horse was roped, tied to a post, and bridled. After the bridle came the saddle blanket, the saddle, and then the rider. With his spurs, his quirt (a short whip), and his rope end, the bronco buster beat in the lesson that disobedience brings instant punishment. No matter how violently the horse kicked and bucked, the buster would break its spirit and ride it a standstill.
Once broken the horse was trained to help its rider handle cattle, a clever horse was said to have "cow sense." Horses with special talents or abilities were favored for certain jobs. A good distance horse had long legs, lots of endurance, and an easy gait. A horse used for night herding had to have keen eyesight, a sure sense of direction and a calm disposition.
"On warm moonlit nights as I rode around the herd, I would say to myself, 'This is the life!'" James Cook remembered. "My horse seemed to understand my thoughts, and to share my feeling. I always picked the best horse in my string for my night animal, and used him whenever I had to night herd. He and I became real friends. When I was in a merry mood he seemed to feel the same way, and on dark and stormy nights when the cattle were ready to jump and stampede at any minute and everyone was keyed up, I could feel him trembling under me; occasionally when we stood still, I could hear his heart thumping with excitement."
This article was taken from Cowboys of the Wild West, by Russell Freedman
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