Most outfits turn their saddle horses out when they are not being used. Horses rest better and stay in better condition if they can run free and easy, away from man. They keep active rustling for their own feed and water. Their feet do not grow long and soft. They do not grow unhealthily fat. […]

Sooner or later a cowboy always suffers his horse getting loose with the saddle on. Cowboys get bucked off or their horses get away from them and make them walk. The first act the horse performs to celebrate his getting loose is usually the “retozo,’ a little running and bucking dance of pure enjoyment, The […]

Quien tenga hacienda y no la atienda No tiene hacienda aunque asi lo crea. A man who owns an outfit and does not husband it, does not have an outfit at all, even though he thinks he does.

When winter begins and cattle have been located a cowpuncher feels like finding a place for himself to winter. He looks forward to wintering in a place where he can fill out his gaunt spots, keep his broken and healing spots warm, and where he can get over the edginess and ringiness that too many […]

A running iron is a short branding iron with a hook on the end in the form of a J. It can be carried on a saddle and used to run any brand a cowboy wants to brand. Branding irons used to stamp a brand on an animal are too cumbersome to carry horseback. The […]

An old bull, whipped by a society of younger, stronger bulls, may choose to remain longer in his summer querencia than is safe for him. He might stay after all the other cattle have gone, eyen though frost is covering him each morning, all the feed is gone, and his watering place is drying up. […]

A thief works best in the night, but a cow thief cannot drive cattle or chase them to rope them with facility in the night. If he is not too greedy and is content to glean only a few head in a night, he might, if he is a skilled cow thief, use a night […]

If a steer stands on his head and overturns and cartwheels, or a horse somersaults with a peculiar, neck-buckling suddenness, these vaults and falls are known as houlihans; hoolies for short. A hoolie is also a short, overhand, backhanded toss a roper gives his loop in a herd. He does not swing his loop before […]

Rimfiring is a hazard in the work of a cowpuncher. Once a horseman has roped a bovine, he must be careful that he doesn’t rimfire another horseman near him. He must control the bovine he is tied to. If a roper lets his catch wrap another horseman in the rope, he rimfires that other horseman. […]

Caballo de pobre, pobre caballo”–Poor man’s horse, poor horse, is the Mexican, saying. It is true a poor man’s horse might not get much to eat, but the horse earns what he gets or the poor man would not keep him. On the other hand, a man can own thousands of dollars in horseflesh and […]