Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-01-20
Tang of Old Vests Talk
Given Spice by Cowboys

! was a band" and no true cattlemar
! ever confused the two terms. All cattle
( we're COWS or COW bruteS' regardless
+ Of sex The male was a "yearling" FOL
4 year; then a steer" until ne was
full grown: then beef" The female
was ''heifer' for year; a '2-year-olo
/ cow and then also a beef" The only
distinction really confusing about the
! cowboys references to cattle was dry
stock" and wet stock" Dry stock
were those cattle that gave no milk;
while wet stock meant either cattle
or horses that had been stolen In
Mexico and Smuggled across the Rio
Grande river The term wet stock
came in time to mean any stolen
stock.
The cattle industry originated the
term 'necking' before 1t was used to
designate a parlOr sport. 1t referred
to the necessary practice Of tying a
wild steer neck to neck with tanner
one to prevent him from taking to the
brush and so breaking up the drive.
"Kneeing' was an operation performed
on wild steer for the same purpose
1t consisted of Sitting the hide on his
foreleg between the knee and the ankle,
and cutting a small leader or tendon
The steer could still walk, but he could
no longer run.
Everyone knows the derivation of the
term maverick perhaps the most ia
nous noun the west has produced. A
Texas cattleman. Samuel A. Maverick,
accepted an unnumbered bunch Of
cattle in payment for a debt before
the Civil war. The negro in whose
charge he placed them allowed them
to run wild for many miles around.
When Maverick sold his outfit he told
the buyer he could have all the cattle
he could find on Mavericks range.
This rancher, systematic person,
made his roundup cover not only
range but several counties,
and all unbranded cattle he claimed
as Mavericks. Unbranded cattle were
also widely called "buenos," meaning
they were good finds.
The definition of a "dogie" as "a
calf that has lost its nanny and
whose daddy has run off with another
cow" has appeared in recent years in
some very fashionable contexts. Or
iginally 'dogie" did mean orphan-a
calf that had lost its mother and so
became stunted and pot-bellied from
eating grass too soon. The cowboy de-
Scribed him as fat in the middle and
poor at both ends" and called him a
nd-belly." Probably because "dogie''
was such a meaty and humorous word
III 40 fCAy O004Alt bAAI N00DNJ N@NbS@4N
ed its meaning eventually to include
all cattle.
The COW was considered by the cow
BOY as one of the most stupid of all
For that reason it required
great skill, cleverneSs and cunning to
work them and make them pay.
'Horse-Sense" is considered desirable
luality and to describe a person as
having it was warm praise; but when (
he cowboy really wanted to pay his /
partner a compliment he spoke with |
more subtlety and said he had COW
sense"
The cowboy often spoke of his horse
Is his "bronc." a word deriving from |
he Spanish broncho, meaning rough I
md rude In later years the term has
,een loosely applied to all cow-horseS. (
Is a matter of fact, the cowboy never
lsed a ''bronc" for actual cow work.
That complicated work demanded a
horse that had intelligence, careful
raining and experience. The average
bronze" the cowboy referred to as (
a 'broomtail," or a jug
head" But the top cutting horse"
Who could turn on quarter and give
,ou back Is cents change" was very
likely first in the cowboys affections.
'Talkin' boss" was to the old-time
owboy what ground flying Is to the
modern aviator. Hearing a bunch OF
hem in such a conference would con-
ince you that the cowboy was really
more interested in knowing and under
tanding horses than in simply being
bile to scratch hi out of anything
hat wore hair" There you would hear
f the horse who "snorted like he had
oilers in his nose" and of the horse
7ho was so gentle yu could stake i'm
o a hairpin." 1t wasn't often that the
owboy could speak of cas- fast boss
S ever looked through a bride" with
ut hearing of other, faster ones, or
( horses excellent in other ways. He
ften told of the outlaw horse, the
snaky bronze" the "man-killer," and
he stampeder; and it was common adj
ice to beware the boss whose eye
oils white" Frequently the cowboy
poke of "shad-bellied, "slab-sided"
or Of "buzzard bait" or
''boneyard" or a horse that had
bed-slat ribs" The cowboy told here
( exceptional horses, of long grueling
Ides, of hunting wild horses by walk
lg them down." of blackSmiths who
ere able ito tack iron on everything
nat flew past"
Probably no performance on a cattle