Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-11-08
CATCHING WILD HORSES
Gone Bell, the "Wild Horse King"
on the Mad Chase.
An Exciting Occupation Now Gone But
Not ForSotten-A Long Race in Which
Brains Count Custom
of Wild Horses.

The day of the wild horse and the
wild horse catcher is over. For nearly
twenty years number Of men skilled
in the capture of the untamed, arch
necked, mane-fowing denizen of the
great plains have gained a livelihood
and even a competence. But this once
profitable calling has constantly grown
more laboriOus and less remunerative,
and this year the horse-catchers have
gone reluctantly at other occupations
or have drifted to the Panhandle of
Texas or strip of country in North
western Wyoming and Northwestern
Nebraska, where few of the ''heet
equines of the desert" still roam in
decimated bands. There are a small
found, it is true, on the Republican
river in Eastern Colorado, and on the
Arickaree river, tributary. But these
are the sole remnants of what score
of years ago were a noticeable and at
tractive feature of the plains and
ranked for numbers almost with the
buffalo. Though valueless when killed
and difficult of capture except by the
most experienced, still the horse has
outlasted its shaggy-coated contempt
rary but few years, and soon, with
the wild Indian as well as the buffalo,
will have become tradition.
At the head of the men who, by the
extinction of the wild horse, find 1t
necessary to now seek some more pro-
sale occupation is Gene Bell of Brush
Station, Colo. Mr.. Bell has made his
livelihood for ten years capturing
these interesting animals. He was
born in the rear end of a prairie
schooner in 1857 and claims to be the
first person who can call Colorado his
native State. As he was born on the
great plains he has since lived continu-
ously upon them, and although but a boy
when he began the difficult calling of
a horse-catcher ne soon reached a pre-
eminence by skill and endurance that
gave him the title OF the ''Wild Horse
King"
So much has been written of the
horse of the plains, which, foaled upon
the dew kissed grass of the prairie, has
never known a halter or the touch of a
mans hand, that descriptive reference
to their fleetness, wariness, and often
times their graceful beauty, particu-
larly among the stations, would at
this day lack Interest. But one curious
fact is known to but few aside from
those who have followed them for hun
dreds of miles and studied their habits
closely. If there are enough in a band,
these animals group by thirteens. The
regulations of the wild horse allow to
each male twelve consorts, and, the
remarkable feature is. no more. They
draw the line at an even dozen. Even
when the bands that roamed these
great plains, then tenantless except by
other wild creatures, numbered in the
hundreds and more than a thousand
this peculiar division into families was
plainly noticeable. They kept little
apart and never voluntarily mingled.
Usually the occupation of capturing
the untamed steeds was followed by
three men working together. They
used four or five hardy, feet, we'll
trained horses. When the section of
the country the wild animals frequented
was reached, the first thing was to select
a suitable location, at the entrance Of
ravine generally, for corral. This
the catchers knew how to construct,
using great quantities of rope, very
speedily. Then near this corral, on
the most slightly eminence, one man
stationed himself. A distance beyond
it, on the apparently most natural rum
way, another man with one of the fleet
est of saddle horses takes his station.
The work of the most skilled man of
the three then begins. Mounted upon
the picked horse of the lot, with pair
of field glasses, a water-bag. and sup
ply of food, he swings away in the ear
lest dawn on an easy lope. 1t may be
ten or twenty miles before his keen eyes,
aided by the glasses with which he
sweeps the broad expanse of rolling
plain, detect grazing band of horses.
He approaches them by the easiest
course which will permit concealment
as long as possible, and then, within a
few hundred yards. he dashes into sight
and the sport is begun.
The affrighted animals stand for an
instant, the morning breeze tanning
their luxuriant names and tails. They
snort in alarm, turn and trot of, at
first, and then, as it is apparent this
strange creature is pursuing, break in
to a run. It is now that the race is to
both the swift and the enduring. The
trained horse, on which the man is
astride, knows his part of the work,
and he does it intelligently. With head
well down, swinging out on long,
swift lope. he follows the fleeing band.
They run madly, become more and
more affrighted as they perceive that
they are indeed pursued. The first
wild burst of speed carries them far in
advance, but not out of sight. By dex-
xoro,,u onoinaey-inO the rider and horse