Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-01-14
WILD WESTERN STEEDS.
The Herds of the Mountains and
Their Fierce "Bosses."

The Herds of the Mountains and
Their Fierce "Bosses."
Before proceeding with my limited
story of wild horses it will be well to
state that the horses of the mountains
are nearly or quite all raised on the
ranges, similar to cattle running at will
over the vast country reaching from the
British possessions to the Rio Grande
and from Colorado almost to Kansas
and the Mississippi River. But for
these herds the stockmen would find it
difficult to control their cattle; there
fore, many men devote their time ex-
clusively to horse-raising, finding ready
sale for them in bands at from twenty
dollars to forty dollars per head.
One can easily imagine that horses
raised with. no restraint whatever from
the time they are sucking colts and
they receive their brand until they are
three or four years old, become ex-
ceedingly wild at best, and flee from
the sight of man. but the intelligent
horsc-breedcr stays with his herd some
thing like the shepherd with his sheep,
and by frequently riding among them
keeps them comparatively in subjec-
ton, so it is possible to drive them to
a corral or market at will.
The mining cxcitements and other
causes, however, often induce many
of these men to neglect their horses
and they become wild. When l speak
of wild horse, you will understand
that the word wild implies its full
meaning, for certainly no animal in ex-
istence is SO thoroughly unapproacha-
BILE. Their superior intellect to other
animals when partly bred to good
stock, their faculties of hearing. seeing
and smelling, coupled with their fleet
ness and courage and their ability to
stand days and weeks of running,
make them the most difficult of ami
mails to capture.
Confining themselves almost entire
" to the inaccessible mountains, only
coming down to water once a day,
makes it almost impossible to follow,
much less capture them, and when a
band or portion of band goes wild
it is rarely in these days that the owner
ever tries to recapture them, knowing
full well that it nearly takes horse for
horse in the business, and the wild
horse once captured has been so run
down and abused to bring him into
sdbIection that he is hardly worth the
success.
With the wild horses a stallion is at
the head. and is the leader of every
herd, having such control over them
that no band of cowboys are able to
drive hand of horses so fast or well as
stallion can. All in the band are so
thoroughly afraid of him they keep in
a bunch. and their speed is gagged by
his own. he running behind with his
head low. scarcely above the ground.
He advances quickly on the hindermost
oneE. giving them sharp bite on the
hau nch, thereby giving them to under
stand they must keep up. Should one
turn out he follows him, much after
the fashion of the shepherd dog. and
runs him back. Until his band are out
OF sight in the mountains he keeps this
mp. Here they seem to understand
that he can not follow them all, and
they scatter in all directions, in ra-
vines. canyons and inaccessible places,
so that when the rider arrives at the
place he last saw them Casually around
some sharp point or on some high peak)
he is mortified to find his own horse al
most exhausted and his herd so scattered
.rrobably only two or three in sight)
that he gives up the chase in disgust.
The usual idea is that very fleet
horse, such an one as is usually used by
the hero in a novel. carries his master
up to 4 wild horse sufficiently close to
1aSso him.
.Shis is erroneous, for no horse on
cath can carry rider ard saddle suf1i-
ciently heavy to stand the strain of a
lasso fast enough on the rough ground
of the mountains to catch wild horse
in good health, and doubt very much
their ability to do it on a smooth plain.
1t is surprising how easily and thor
oughly domestic horses 60 wild under
the influence of these wild stations.
MANY is the emigrant or hOrse-raiser
who has gone to bed at night full of
confidence and often pride at the con-
dtion and numbers of his stock, only
to wake up in the morning to find
nothing left but the one horse on the
picket rope and the train of their flee
ing animals, driven or coaxed away by
these wild horses-gone, and forever.
/ recall to mind now an acquaintance
of mine in Nevada, one Joseph Gilbert,
who lived in Reese River Valley, in
Louder County, who took a-pride in the
. quality and quantity of his horses. His
herd numbered about i've hundred head.