Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1897-04-06
HUNTING WILD HORSES.
Queer Fun for sportsmen in South
orn Utah.

''You may talk about hunting dee
and elk or mountain goats, but foi
real sport horse hunting is destined
TO lay all such shooting in the shade
in the near future"
This remark was aade by b. r
Saunders, one Of the cattle kings Of
Utah. Mr. Saunders each year sell,
about $500 head efcattle to Montana
stockmen. Continuing, he said:
In the Rocky mountain ranges
there are now roaming about fully
100000 horses that may be said to
belong to no one. The range horse
has become so worthless and such a
drug on the market that for several
years past stockmen have not branded
the young horses growing up. The
horses on the plains now are about
one-half without brands, and are re-
lapsed into a perfectly wild state.
"Down in the southern part of
Utah where my cattle range all the
year boys are shooting these wild
horses whenever they get chance.
This practice, of course, makes those
horses that escape wilder than ever,
and it is only now and then that a
band of horses can be approached
near enough to get a shot at them.
There is no danger of anyone being
injured by this sport, as the horses
are a nuisance, and all cattlemen wish
to see them exterminated. Many cat
tlemen themselves own bands of
horses that are running wild, and
when they go out to round up it is
not as of old to brand, but to shoot
them.
''In the Rocky mountain ranges in
Montana, Utah, Nevada and else
where, it is now generally acknowl-
edged that range horses are a public
nuisance, and they ought to be ex-
terminated. They eat up the grass
needed for the cattle and they are as
hard on range as sheep. The horses
eat grass right down to the roots, thus
in dry weather completely destroying
the range they Craze over.
"There was time not many years
ago when big band of horses was
considered very valuable property
and guarded carefully. A horse
thief was considered on the range one
degree worse than a murderer, and
was hanged sometimes on very slight
evidence.
GA man who would now go out on
the range and steal a few bands of
horses would bSallowedho sRibfhem
away and be hailed as a public bene-
factor. Around his neck, instead .of
1 rope, would be thrown wreaths of
flowers, and all men would praise him
rs a philanthropist of very high
order.
Otis fact that anyone who wished
could round up all the horses he could
ind in almost any section of the
Rocky mountain range and no one
would question his right The day
If the range horse is past, and it will
never come again. The time is com
ng, in my mind, when the horse, like
the buffalo, viii be in danger of be-
extinct.
Don't you know that in recent
ears the railroads compel shipper
o prepay freight on horses, which is
he only sort of live stock where such
rule applies.
''The sport Of hunting horses is
ncograged by stockmen and can be
ndulged in with i1npunity. 1t is des-
ined, / think, to become very popu-
II, as tits exciting and somewhat dan
erous.
"The proposition of canning horse
leat for the European market was
bought at one time to be way of
tilizing the range horse to advantage,
ut that is evidently a failure. twas
liked of for some time, but nothing
Lore was heard of it. The only way
can see of getting rid Of horses is to
AXE the sport of shooting them pop
lar, as believe it is destined to be-
,me.
"0f course, dead horse is no good,
ut thousands of buffaloes were killed
T the sport there was in hunting
EN-, so why not horses2"- Butte
iner.