The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1889-10-15

A Texas Sport as Profitable as II
Is Peculiar.
Traits and Traditions OF the Mustangs
The Older Ones Are Usually Untame-
abie-Capturing Monarch OF
the Plains

Wild horses, or mustangs, as they
were called. were once q good deal
more numerous in Texas than gentle
ones, and indeed many that were gentle
were mustangs thas had been caught
when colts principally and raised as
pets, but there were also great many
that had been caught when full-growu
and broken to the saddle. The writer's
father settled in Calhoun County In
1852. and | can we'll remember one fall
that we had thirty-two pet mustang
colts running around the ranch, vary
ing in age from, three months to two
years. When grown the mustang that
had been raised a pet was hardly ever
any trouble to break, but the mustang
that was full-grown when caught was
never thoroughly broken. or at least
rarely ever.
Occasionally among the mustangs a
horse of rare beauty. size and action
would be found. denoting strain of bet
ter bleed than that of the common stock.
and there was a tradition that when
General Taylor was csmped at Corpus
Christi several fine stations belonging
TO Kentucky officers in his army had
strayed away and joined the mustangs
and were never recovered. 1t is well
known that General Marshall, of Ken
lucky, thus lost very fine mare that
was often seen among the mustangs,
but never could be caught and so an
occasional fine specimen OF horsefiesh
among the mustangs was hardly to De
wondered at.
The mustangs were a source OF rev.
enue to large class Of people-Mexi-
cans and Americans-who caught them
in large numbers and drove them to
Louisiana, as well as to older-settled
portions of Texas, for sale. These
mustang hunters did not depend upon
the lasso-it was only the inferior ami
mails that could be taken that way
but they built pens. with wings ex-
tending mile or more from the pen,
and a mile or so apart at the ends,
gradually converging as they neared
the gate of. the pen. When a
bunch of mustangs had been driven
into one of these pens there
was always found among them a num-
Der of animals that were branded and
had been gentle once, the owners of
which were glad to pay Ave dollars a
head-that was the price-for their re-
covery. This. with the sale of the
wild animals, often made mustang
ing" quite lucrative business. There
are not many mustangs left in Texas
now, but in Tom Green. Crockett and
other western and northwestern Coun-
ties there are still few.
Along about 1874 there were great
many stories told about a remarkably
fine stallion that ranged about the
head of the Nueces and over to the
head draws" of Devils river. He
was described as blood-bay in color
and those who had succeeded in get
ting close enough TO him TO get good
look at the steed declared that he was
fully sixteen and one-half hands high
and that no finer specimen OF horsehesh
was ever bred in the bluegrass region
of old Kentucky. No one had ever
been near enough TO him to see
whether he was branded or not. Many
thought he was really blooded ami
NAL that had strayed from his owner
in the interior; but the papers of the
State, which made a specially of adj
vertising lost stock. never contained
an advertisement for this horse, and
most people thought him a genuine
mustang. Marvellous stories were
told of his speed and bottom. 1t was
said that he could pace or rack as fast
as any horse ever ridden in pursuit of
him could run. In fact, the White
Steed of the Prairies," which Captain |
Mayne Reid made famous in his novel |
under that title, was not finer animal |
than this, according to the gossip cur
rent along the frontier. Numerous |
parties went out to capture him. but he |
would leave his bunch of mares at the |
first scent of danger, and many good |
horse was broken up in endeavoring to |
follow him. 1t was no use trying to |
''ring" him. He would break through |
the most compact ring and once or |
twice when he had done this parties |
had been so close TO him that they |
.-i@At harA lassoad him. but it would :