HORSES OF THE WEST

From 1600 forward, more and more horses went up the valley of the Rio Grande to Santa Fe and various other places established by the Spaniards. Slowly at first, Indian tribes nearest the trading centers acquired horses, and the Spanish traders obligingly taught them how to manage them. Had they known that mounted Indians were to block Spanish expansion and develop into the greatest horse thieves known to history, they might have had second thoughts about providing these savages with what became their greatest weapon.

In addition to the trading posts, missions and mission herds were established. With this activity New Mexico became the outpost of early western civilization, the gateway to the great plains, and the major supply base for the Indians, a position it would hold for two centuries.

The horse changed the entire mode of life for the Indian; he could now enjoy a more nomadic existence, following the buffalo and harvesting the meat and by-products of this vital Indian "super-market" with greater ease. The horse provided sport, carried the burdens, changed the tactics of war with neighboring tribes, and became the Indian's most valuable single asset. His status was judged by the number of horses he owned and with them he could trade for a squaw, a gun or other things he wanted.

So important became the horse to Indian life that what they could not obtain by trade they took by theft or violence. Horse stealing was considered an honorable pursuit among the Red Men, and soon they began to extend their raids down into Mexico.

The Indian success in obtaining horses led to a steady expansion of the horse herd, like the ripples of a stone thrown into still water, until by the late 1700s horses were plentiful in the areas claimed by the Commanche, Apache, Kiowa, Osage, Pawnee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Sioux and other tribes. Through the Navajos a somewhat different course of expansion took place with horses being traded or stolen in a northerly chain through the lands of the Paiute, Shoshone, and on into the northwest of the Cayuse, Nez Perce, Crow, and Blackfeet.

Horse pipelines from Mexico eventually were opened in what are now Texas and California. Separated by the Rocky Mountains, the California Spanish expansion northward had little effect on the Plains Indians, but in California, due to the mild climate and rich soil, the herds of cattle and horses multiplied rapidly, leading to a colorful pastoral period.

In Texas the Spanish settlement was slow, encouraging some thousands of Americans to migrate there and settle especially in the fertile lands around present-day Austin and San Antonio. The introduction of horses into Texas proceeded through both Indian and Spanish sources but the more dramatic horse history of that area did not take place until the Texans cast off Mexican rule in 1836. After operating as a republic for nine years, Texas was admitted as a state of the Union in 1845. If Texas had a relatively slow start in her horse and cattle industries she made up for it in a hurry, for after the War between the States thousands of these animals were spread over her vast territory. Texas then became the major source of cattle for stocking the great plains. And always where there were cattle, horses were needed. Without the horse there would have been no trail drives.

By the time the explorers Lewis and Clark made their way to the west coast overland in 1803 they found the Indians well supplied with horses. In fact, during the preceding two centuries Indians throughout the west had acquired thousands of horses. Thousands more roamed in a wild state. These were either feral horses (those which once had been domesticated and had escaped) or those born in a wild state. In either case, the bands of wild horses were to cause problems and controversy, the last glowing embers of which have not yet died out.

The story of the wild horses conjures up visions of a noble stallion, mane and tail flowing, standing majestically on a rise, a striking symbol of wild freedom.

For years there were stories adrift of a white stallion, a sort of ghostly desert Pegasus, who appeared to float away from all pursuers at a fast pacing gait. Certainly the mustangs were the most picturesque animals of the wild species and, if one had the necessary skill, they were as free for the taking as the deer or the antelope.

The life of the mustanger was seldom an easy or profitable one, however. In 1898, as an example, a group of Arizona mustangers rounded up an entire train load of wild horses and shipped them to Kansas City. The net profit, after deducting freight charges and other expenses, amounted to just 25¢ per head.

From the romanticized to the practical, the herds of wild mustangs grew to such size that they represented as much competition to cattle for the available grasses and browse as had the buffalo. It is estimated that at their peak, about 1850, they numbered from five to seven million animals.

In terminology the mustang was a small horse, broken or unbroken to saddle, and descended from the Spanish horses brought into the plains. The bronco was a similar horse yet untamed, and a "broomtail" was the colloquialism for a nondescript wild horse. A cayuse was an Indian pony, the name originating from the Cayuse Indians of the Northwest.

By whatever name they were called (and some were unprintable) the wild horse from the cattleman's viewpoint was a pest to be eradicated. It was claimed they consumed enough grass to feed two cows, trampled the watering places, destroyed vegetation growth on the watershed, lured away domestic horse stock, drove cattle from salting places, and in short brought in no return and served no useful purpose.

The public recognized this problem, but differences arose as to the methods and extent of the reduction. One of the best researched books on the subject, and one containing extensive reference notes and bibliography, is J. Frank Dobie's The Mustangs. Other recommended reading is The Wild Horse of the West by Walker D. Wyman and America's Last Wild Horses by Hope Ryden.

When the great western movements began and reached feverish activity by the mid 1800s, the Indians were well mounted and, except for meager supplies of guns and ammunition, were quite well equipped to dispute the invasion of their lands. Violent confrontations followed. This was the period of the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach (1858) involving 1800 horses and mules, followed in a few years by the Pony Express which employed 400 fine horses.

The western artist Frederic Remington once wrote: "Of all the monuments the Spaniard left to glorify his reign in America there will be none more worthy than his horse."

"The wild horse in America has a romantic history that dates back nearly four centuries. His domestic ancestors carried the Conquistadors through the unexplored territory, transformed the Indians' style of life, and gave inspiration to such artists as Remington and Russell. The Age of Exploration might better have been called the Age of the Spanish Horse, for without this particular type of horse, the New World would have been almost impenetrable. But the most interesting thing this horse ever did in America he did for himself when he took his freedom."

From Chapter 2, "America's Last Wild Horses" . By Hope Ryden - E. P. Dutton & Co.

PAINTED PONIES

Indians like their ponies gay. And so imagine what a spectacle a battle between the Sioux and the Crows, for instance with its multitude of pintos "paints," block-spotted, brown spotted, red spotted, especially beloved because of their gaudy coloring, and palominos, those lovely horses, taffy colored with cream or golden manes and tails, and palmettos grays with small Arab spots on their flanks. And mouse blues. And buckskins with the black stripes down their backs. And the pure whites with red-rimmed eyes. And all daubed with color like their naked riders. Shields, too! And pinioned lances! And the occasional war bonnet of a chief! From Chapter IV, Powder River by Struthers Burt, 1938.

"Jack Freckles chance had finally come. His rider lay stunned at his feet. There were no riders close enough to drive the big killer away. Yet the Horse did not snap and strike as he had done so often before. Nor did he break to run. The big outlaw never moved from his tracks though he trembled from head to foot. It was then that Jack Freckles did a strange thing, unbelievable for him. He touched the man on the ground with his nose. He nuzzled the fallen rider. It was only when the other riders rode up that the big killer flattened his ears. And they kept their distance too while the big horse stood his ground. Not till Klink was on his feet again would he let anyone conie near. Horses are like humans when it comes to certain things. The freckled, outlaw horse, and the big smoky-eyed cowboy. How much alike they were. He was all horse Jack Freckles. Klink was all man too." From "Man and Horse" in "The Rummy Kid Goes Home," Hastings House.

It's every sapient collector's ambition to own a Boren painting, especially one of Jim's watercolors. Western art galleries would rather hang a Boren watercolor than a Russell oil. Troy's Western Art Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona will show James Boren's art for the first time this March.

Horsepower By The Acre... photograph by Arthur Dailey

"No cow horse ever attained to the dignity of a name of its own, though it might for purposes of identification be mentioned in some descriptive form, as the "wall-eyed cayuse," the "star faced sorrel," the "white-eyed claybank," "O Bar horse from Texas," etc. Yet each cowpuncher of the ranch force would know every horse belonging to the outfit, and if one strayed could describe it to any one he met, and in some fashion as would enable the other, if he were a cowman himself, to identify it at once. This keen observation was a matter of habit on the range, and its development was the greatest among the old-time men of the open ranges."

From Chapter V, "The Story Of The Cowboy," by E. Hough D. APPLETON & COMPANY

Top Man - Top Horse...

"The Quarter Horse is basically a stock horse. His type has been developed for that sole purpose. The other uses are secondary and should not be allowed to influence the trend of selection. The exceptionally intelligent, lovable and companionable nature of our Quarter Horse so endears him to his owner's heart that the latter is wont to be blind to his imperfections and to resent any criticism of his conformation."

From: "The Quarter Horse As I See Him" by Robert Q. Sutherland

Photographed At The Eaton Ranch, Wolf, Wyoming By Arthur Dailey Dust is one of the "musts" in a Dailey photograph. Dust also makes an effective "screen" in many artistic sunset photographs. Ross Santee once told me most cowboys eat more dust, and inhale more cigarette smoke than anybody and he couldn't remember "a-one of 'em ever hurtin'" from lung cancer.

"A remuda is the herd of horses being used by the cowboys on an outfit. A horse takes on his identity as a flesh and blood unit of an outfit when he begins the work of men and becomes a member of a remuda. The ideal remuda is composed of geldings only. Studs and mares fulminate trouble in a remuda because of the demands of their state as procreators in which their efficiency and trustworthiness to man can be stopped by natural forces such as phases of the moon. For geldings, the bachelor horses, man has arranged a life of work. Geldings have been altered to respond placidly to a society of horses doing man's work. In Spanish, remuda also means a change of horses, a relay, a relief. The Mexican saying is "el caballo revolcado es caballo remudado" a horse that has a good place to roll is a relieved and rested horse."

From Chapter 2, "The Outfit" by J. P. S. Brown The Dial Press.

Friend Joe; Hope this little drawing is what you wanted for your horseshoeing. These guys usually work out of the back of a pickup and sometimes it's a family affair... the wife helping by holding the horse while it is being worked over and the kids are running to the corral catching the next one ... as is the case with my man, Don Goddard from Cornville... the whole family is here workin' when he comes to shoe my horses. Others are like Perce Rhodes from Cornville who is a rancher but also shoes horses when he has the time. On a cow outfit each cowboy usually looks after his own mounts, trimming and shoeing his own... as they need it. One thing is for sure, the job is just as hard and back breaking as it ever was.

HORSE SENSE AND ATTITUDE

There are those on one side - and "there's them" on the other side. And there's the editor - the one in the middle.

The culture of the American plains Indian was based on buffalo hunting. The buffalo supplied him with food, raiment, materials for shelter, tools and fuel. The health and welfare of the tribe was measured by the degree of buffalo killed throughout the year. When the horse came he gave the tribe the obvious means of changing the standard of living without altering the cultural pattern. The process of change was not effected without some resistance from the older traditionally inclined older men. The younger braves were the first to accept the daring, reckless challenge as another test of manhood, and the plains Indians developed into superb horsemen. The horse became part of the man, and subsequently an important religious instrument. The sacred attitude toward animals the idea of a living creature the substance of a religious concept is found in all religions.

The white man says "You can't take it with you." The Indian warrior takes it all with him including his horse.

In the above powerfully rendered concept by Indian artist Diane Oleary, the Spirits of the fallen warrior and his horse are silhouetted against the rising sun departing for the hallowed world beyond the sun.

After her current show at the Phoenix Heard Museum her works will be shown exclusively by Buck Saunders Gallery, Scottsdale.

HORSES . . . from Page 16

Those who had felt the violence of the mounted Indian, such as the stagecoach drivers, Pony Express riders and the U. S. cavalrymen cut down in the Fetterman and Custer massacres, would no doubt question the virtue in providing horses for these savage warriors. But it is certain that Remington referred to the special qualities of the Spanish horses rather than the roles they sometimes had been forced to play.

While all this spread of the Spanish horses was taking place in the Southwest and other areas west of the Missouri River, horse culture had been taking place elsewhere in the world that would have great influence in the further developMovement of the western horse.

Encouraged by Charles II (1660-85) horse races and the raising of good saddle horses gained increased impetus in England. Finally three horses of Arabian blood were imported that led to the foundation of the Thoroughbred racing horse. These horses and the dates of their importation were the Byerly Turk (1689), Darley Arabian (1712) and Godolphin Barb (1732).

Increased attention to the upgrading of the riding horse in England soon had its effect in America. Good stallions were shipped to the Colonies. Some of these were bred by gentlemen of Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and Kentucky to hardy Chickasaw Indian mares of Spanish blood. Excellent results were obtained. The Chickasaw Indians originally ranged in areas east of the Mississippi River in southern Tennessee, and across northern Alabama and Mississippi (they were later removed to Oklahoma). The Chickasaws were apparently close to the terminus of the Indian trading area eastward, receiving their horses through the Osage and Comanche tribes.

The puritanical New Englanders looked with disfavor on most things English, including riding horses and racing. The thrifty Germans of Pennsylvania preferred heavy horses to work their fields and pull their Conestoga wagons. But in New York, and in the states south to Georgia, the riding horse and horse racing became increasingly popular.

Despite the early New England aversion to riding horses and racing there was developed in that section of the country a breed of light horses that was to become popular throughout the nation. The founder of this breed was a relatively small horse of somewhat uncertain blood lines foaled in 1789 (or a few years later) and known as Justin Morgan. He was destined to have great influence not only on the breed he sired but of other breeds as well.

In the latter 1700s and into the 1880s selective breeding gained impetus and distinctive types of horses began to be developed for special purposes. If there is one breed that contributed more than any other to the foundation of the different types of light horses I think it can be fairly said that breed is the Arabian.

There are many legends concerning these horses of the Asian and North African deserts and from such sources emerges the impression that fine horses have been regarded with something akin to reverence by their nomad masters.

The Arabian horses are relatively small animals, weighing 800 to 1000 pounds and seldom exceeding 15 hands in height (a “hand” is the equivalent of 4 inches in linear measure). But they are intelligent, beautiful, and possessed of great stamina.

The mare was the favorite mount of the Bedouin, and while they would sell stallions it was only with great reluctance that they would part with fine mares, which made better camp animals and through whom the ancestry was traced. Great care was taken in the breeding, one of the reasons that the Arabian horse is unequaled in pure lineal ancestry and conformation.

A delicate head with a concave or slightly dished nose line, prominent circular jawbone discs and a sensitive muzzle are features of the Arabian horse. The forehead is broad, eyes low-set and large, ears sharp and alert. There is a graceful curve to the neck and the wide-set jawbones permit a freedom of air passage which contributes substantially to the horse's good wind and endurance. The back usually has one less vertebra in the lumbar region than other horses. Denseness of bone, thin skin and fine hair are other characteristics. Colors are usually solid, running to gray, bay or chestnut.

In the West there are now outstanding Arabian breeding farms or ranches in Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, California and some other states. The Kellogg Arabian establishment in Pomona, California, has long been nationally famous.

As a pleasure and show horse Arabians rank with the best, and in Colorado it is claimed they are working out satisfactorily as cow horses. They are high spirited animals, however, and must be handled as such.

The great stamina of the Arabian horses and their brothers the Barb, along with their ability to endure heat, lack of water and sparse feed, made them ideal progenitors of the Spanish horses that faced similar conditions in our arid Southwest. Certainly it was from this strain that the thousands of mustangs which roamed our plains gained their reputation for endurance and ability to survive under difficult conditions.

Through the years fine quality horses have been imported from the Arab countries and recently excellent specimens have come from breeders in Poland. The tendency now is to breed the Arabian horses along pure lines, adding 5000 or more each year to the registry of the Arabian Horse Club Registry of America, Inc. It does not preclude, however, the use of Arabian stallions to continue their contributions in the improvement of horses having less aristocratic blood.

Following the Arabian horses, the oldest of the improved breeds is the Thoroughbred horse developed in England almost exclusively for racing. These horses have had a great influence on the evolution of other types of horses now popular in the West and elsewhere. Not only did these rangy, powerful and beautiful horses create great dynasties of the fastest distance horses but their blood has added certain desirable qualities in other breeds.

Sometimes called “The Sport of Kings,” Thoroughbred racing commands a great following. Stud fees can run as high as $10,000 or more and top horses can sell over a million dollars. A horse's life could extend from 20 to 30 years, and a stallion can serve 30 to 40 mares in a short season. Kentucky, with its rich, nutritious pastures and favorable climate, is usually considered the home of the Thoroughbred and leads all other states in its annual foal crop. However, California is now a very close second.

The Thoroughbred horse is not a horse for the average westerner, his place primarily on the breeding farm and in the racing stable. It is the influence this breed has had on "using horses" that commands the interest of most western horsemen.

One of the great horse breeds into which some Thoroughbred and Arab blood may have filtered is the Morgan of which I made brief mention earlier. The founder of this truly American Breed, Justin Morgan, was apparently a stallion that nobody wanted in the early days of his existence, and is said to have been taken for a debt.

Justin Morgan was a blocky horse about 14 hands high and weighing just short of 1000 pounds. He was a wellmuscled, close-coupled, sturdy little animal, dark bay in color with black mane, tail and legs. He was blessed with a very good disposition. Here was an "all-around" horse, equally capable of running a fast race under saddle, pulling a plow, or being driven before the family surrey on Sunday. I have driven and ridden Morgan horses when a boy and always found them to be a willing, quiet horse for any kind of work.

One of the features that made Justin Morgan great was his prepotency in perpetuating his special qualities to his foals. Like the other true American breeds such as the American Saddle Horse and Tennessee Walking Horse, the Morgan horse was genetically a purebred, being able to faithfully reproduce his own type.

There is in Middlebury, Vermont, a unique government horse farm under the Bureau of Animal Husbandry, Department of Agriculture. I believe it to be the only government breeding farm devoted to the perpetuation of a single breed of horses. It is in Middlebury, too, that one finds a fine bronze statue of the horse Justin Morgan. Unlike most impressive horse sculpture that features the rider, this statue and the one of Man O' War near Lexington, Kentucky, features only the horse.

Many Morgan-type horses pulled the coaches and other vehicles that headed west, and their interest here is increased because of their serving in remount stations of the Army and their use by the cavalry. While overshadowed by some other breeds, it is noteworthy that the western state of California is now second only to Vermont in the breeding of Morgan horses.

More space than available to us here could be devoted to many other breeds that in one way or another have a place in the West. Certainly the heavy horses of the early settlers, especially the Percherons, contributed greatly to western progress. The Standardbred pacers and trotters touch us but lightly, as do the gaited American Saddle Horse and the Tennessee Walking Horse, although these latter animals do have increased interest in western show rings.

There are about 58 different associations devoted to light horses listed by the U. S. Animal Husbandry Research Division, from Thoroughbreds to mustangs. Obviously, a short review of this kind could do about as much justice to all of them as one could accomplish by trying to paint the Grand Canyon of Arizona with black paint.

In discussing the dominant breeds, cognizance must be taken of the Paint Horse, the Albino, the golden Palomino, and some other groups. Among the multi-color horses, the Appaloosa has come up rapidly in popularity. Horse shows devoted exclusively to this type or breed are fast increasing in number. First developed by selective breeding practiced by the Nez Perce Indians of the Northwest, the spotted Appaloosa horses gradually found their way into other areas, especially after the defeat of Chief Joseph in 1877. They were named after the Palouse River which runs through the traditional lands of the Nez Perce in western Idaho and western Washington.

The Nez Perce were among the first to geld their poorer stallions, thus being able to control the breeding. It was into the 1880s, too, before the Californians adopted this practice. Among the Texans, Arizonans and other horsemen this operation was often referred to in corral talk as "depriding." It may be noted here that, differing from the Arabs who preferred to ride mares, the vaqueros and cowboys seldom would ride anything but a male animal. Horses of the Appaloosa marking, usually a solid color with spots on the back and rump, were early favorites at the wild west shows or circuses, and have always appealed to the Indians who not only liked the multi-colors but claimed that horses so marked provided the best camouflage. Originally of the small, hardy Spanish stock, the Appaloosa horse has now been bred up until he often has the size and conformation of heavier breeds such as the Quarter Horse.

Leading the western field in numbers and popularity is that lightning fast, sturdy animal called the Quarter Horse. The name really does not do this animal justice for he is far more than merely a horse that can cover a quarter mile course in fast time. Origin of the breed goes back to colonial times in the tidewater South when the wiry, fast Chickasaw Indian mares were bred to English blooded stallions. The horses of this crossbreeding proved to be tractable, easy keepers and more than a match in speed for other horses on a quarter mile path or straightaway. In some areas they came to be called "quarter pathers." Horse racing became the favorite pastime in the "Cavalier Culture" of Virginia and other southern states.

The Spanish blood of the Chickasaw ponies, blessed with inbred "cow sense" from the handling of Spanish cattle and the Indian hunting of buffaloes, gave to the Quarter Horse a foundation for work they would be called on to perform in the years ahead.

In the 1750s a relatively small but superbly muscled stallion was imported from England by Mr. Mordecai Booth, a prosperous planter of Virginia. This horse was named Janus, a name now well-known to all Quarter Horse breeders. Janus stood somewhat less than 15 hands, was very solidly made, and radiated vitality and strength the entire length and breadth of his bright chestnut body.

Bred to choice Chickasaw mares, Janus had the great ability to stamp the foals with his own image and qualities. Building of the Quarter Horse breed was now on the way. The course of the selective breeding that has led to today's great animals is too complicated to detail but along the line horses like Shiloh and Steel Dust have added their qualities until there has evolved the western man's ideal of an all-around horse. The Quarter Horse has dazzling speed, is strong, maneuverable, willing, endowed with a good disposition and is adaptable to all western services such as ranch work, racing, rodeo and the show ring. He has the ability to thrive on native

"TRUSTING"

oil painting by Emily Touraine Mr. and Mrs. Niblack Thorne Collection

The Arabian Horse is

acknowledged to be the purest of all breeds. The Arabian is distinguished for the outstanding beauty of its head, its majestic carriage and a quick alert action at all paces. Arabians possess superb qualities of stamina and endurance, and have adapted to change better than any other breed in almost every country into which they have been imported. Arizona is fast becoming one of the prime Arabian Horse centers of the continent.

BASK Grand Champion

Arabian Stallion... Standing at Stud... LeCroix Lasma Arabian Ranch. oil painting by Emily Touraine Bronze sculpture commissioned by Mrs. Robert Aste, was donated to the City of Scottsdale, as a memorial to her late husband, Robert L. Aste.

Sculptor Lawrence Tenney Stevens

grasses and adjust to all kinds of weather conditions. More Quarter Horses are now said to be registered annually than all the other breeds put together. These horses average around 14.3 hands tall and weigh upwards of 1200 pounds. One old-time advocate declared: "A Quarter Horse is an animal you can use to plow the garden in the morning, run a fast race in the afternoon, and saddle for the kids after supper."

Texas leads the states in the total of its horse population and it is here that the Quarter Horse has had great support and attention. From Sam Bass' famous Denton mare to the great horse herds of the King Ranch, these gutty foursquare horses have won the admiration of men everywhere who really know horses. It used to be that Texans would say "Any horse that did not buck was guilty of treason to the grand old state of Texas," but now good Texas horses are handled with care and taught not to buck.

Some horses have long pedigrees and others come from what horsemen call "behind the barn" breeding, but most Quarter Horses have what Will Jarnes called a big "think tank" a savvy that is not exceeded in any other breed. From those early days along the southern tidelands the breeding of Quarter Horses has spread to all the western states and to Canada.

The size of western ranches is sometimes hard for easterners to envision. The King Ranch, in Texas, encompassing over a million acres, is tremendous but the XIT Ranch is said to have controlled three million acres. A few other big southwest ranches worthy of mention are the Matador and Waggoner ranches, the Bell Ranch of Albert Mitchell in New Mexico, the Hash Knife Ranch in Arizona and Joel McCrea's former Ruby Valley Ranch in Nevada; there are many more.

Now top quality Quarter Horse champions are second only to the Thoroughbreds in the high sale prices they command. A stud fee alone can run from $500 up to $10,000. However, there are said to be over a half million Quarter Horses, all of which cannot be of winning quality and it would seem that a goodly number are still available at reasonable prices.

The American Quarter Horse Association has divisions for racing, youth activities, shows and rodeo. They publish an excellent monthly, The Quarter Horse Journal, and are proud of the fact that the world's richest horse race is the annual All American Futurity (for Quarter Horses only) held at Ruidiso Downs, New Mexico.

Thousands of Quarter Horses are at work on ranches, but it is at the horse shows and rodeos that the greatest number "The Airplane". artist Tom Lea."... a cowhand somewhere in lonesome Trans-Pecos country standing by his horse and gazing up at an airliner going over in the noon quiet, carrying people through the sky in a minute farther than a man in a saddle moved in an hour." from A PICTURE GALLERY, Little Brown and Co.

Of people have an opportunity to observe and appreciate the qualities of these horses. Perhaps the most dramatic events are the cutting horse trials. The horses actually out think the cattle and need little or no guidance from the rider. At a show in Canada this past year I saw a top cutting horse so intent on preventing a steer from turning back toward the herd that, ears back and exasperated, she actually struck at the steer with a front foot.

Competition in the skills of their trade between cowboy horsemen began practically as soon as the cattle industry was born, leading eventually to the well over 500 approved rodeos held in the United States and Canada, with prize money now totalling more than $4,000,000 annually.

"Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and Congress of Rough Riders of the World" is the best publicized of the early glamorized exhibitions in which the western skills were demonstrated - nearly all dependent on horses, from Bill's famous resplendent white horse to the rough broncs in the bucking string. Some shows of this nature still travel about the country, but the rodeo now holds the spotlight.

Many of the rodeo events feature the skills necessary for a working cowboy and his horse roping, riding and general horsemanship. Bull riding, wild cow milking and chuck wagon races hardly come under the heading of today's ranch work, but they add excitement and variety to the day's performance. Rodeo is now close to the top among all spectator sports.

Although some competitions are said to have been held at Deer Trail, Colorado, in 1869, it is generally believed that the first undertaking of a formal Frontier Days celebration with rodeo type events was initiated at Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1872. Prescott, Arizona, had the distinction of erecting the first grandstand and announcing a cowboy competition at which cash prizes were to be awarded and admission charges made. That was in 1888, and such events have become bigger, better and more widespread with the passing of each year. In 1971, the Calgary Stampede, one of the biggest rodeos, extended over a period of ten days and attracted approximately 90০,০০০ spectators. Next year they contemplate extending the events to two weeks.Finals for the year's national championships in the various major rodeo events are held each year in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, under the direction of the Rodeo Cowboy's Association. Here, too, the National Rodeo Hall of Fame, a part of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center, has an annual program to honor great rodeo cowboys, honorees being selected from deceased great performers of the past. One is elected each year. All-around cowboy champions of the year are also honored.

Rodeos are only one of the many interesting events which attract those with interest in horses. There are many horse shows, trail rides, polo matches (the oldest ball and stick game), fiestas, parades, sheriff's posses and 4-H Club projects. Inmany youth projects young people are taught rudimentary things about their horses such as that a "horse" can mean a male animal or the whole species; a female is a mare; offspring is a foal and later if a male the foal becomes a colt and the female a filly. The mule is the result of mating a Jack or male ass with a mare. Students then proceed to more advanced courses in horse culture.

Rudimentary facts about horses and their care are important because ownership of horses today is spread so widely and among a large percentage of non-ranch people who have not had the advantage of horse experience. The American Horse Council estimates the value of the nation's horse-based industry as between 7 and 8 billion dollars. In the past decade after a great decline in the previous ten-year period the horse population has climbed rapidly. No precise census appears currently available but the total has been estimated by reliable sources as upwards of 8 million. When the program of vaccinating American horses as a preventative to Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE) is completed, a more accurate estimate of the total may become available. The Federal Government has made no horse census since 1959. Horse racing alone attracts approximately 65 million patrons more than the number of spectators who attend all the professional and college football and baseball games combined.

Even the Wall Street Journal has taken cognizance of the rising trend in horse ownership by commenting on the comeback in oat grain and the growth of the western wear industry.

A recent British Columbian newspaper carried this headline and subhead: "HORSE RECONQUERS CANADIAN WEST. Horses have plodded from out of the past to a galloping popularity. There are more of them on the North American continent now than ever before, and although their role in transportation and other labor is no longer vital, their use in recreation is allowing many a victim of today's work-whirl to retain at least a semblance of sanity."

Who is today's horseman? In times past we know he was the Spanish vaquero, the Indian, the cowboy, scout, lawman, Pony Express rider or maybe even a circuit-riding parson. Today horsemen are usually classified in two groups: The "pleasure horse" owners and, for lack of a better name, the "non-pleasure" group which is made up of ranchers, cowboys, horse breeders, race horse owners and the like. It may surprise some to learn that in national statistics 75% of all horse owners are in the "pleasure horse" group. This change in use from working animals to pleasure horses has been brought on by the fact that horses on farms have been largely replaced by tractors and other self-propelled machinery. Pickups and even helicopters play a role on the ranches. But there still are things that the horse does best.

In age and sex classifications 40% of horse owners are under 20 years and 60% are 20 years old or over; 70% are males and 30% females. The substantial number of young people is partly due to the fact that there are 250,000 in 4-H horse projects. Of these the girls outnumber the boys 7 to 3. Oklahoma has an especially active program.

The majority of horse owners is not necessarily in the very high income brackets. Seventy-five percent take care of their own horses. They prefer western gear 7 to 1 over English, and well over half are located in rural areas and around cities of less than 50,000 population. Trends toward suburban living and more leisure for recreational activities are given as two of the reasons for the boom in horses.

There are other reasons, too, some of which have been cumulative. Among these are the influence of the arts and literature. Can you imagine a western television production without horses? The horse has a very major role in the performing arts.

From the painter's canvas the horse has looked out at us from works of the early Dutch and Italian masters to works like that famous French painting by Rosa Bonheur "The Horse Fair," now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Some of our best pictorial records of the early West (made before photography) are those by artists like Alfred Jacob Miller and George Catlin.

Catlin's work is of special value because he not only sketched what he saw among the Indians in the 1830s but he also wrote of his experiences. Among his many comments involving horses, I think this story is significant of his keen observations among the Comanches in 1834: "Among the most impressive feats of horsemanship practiced by the Comanches as well as by the Pawnees farther west, was their throwing of themselves far down on the sides of their horses while riding at full speed in the heat of battle He is able to drop his body upon the side of his horse at the instant of passing his enemy, effectively screened from their weapons, with his heel hanging over the horse's back, by which he has the power of throwing himself up again.

"I had great curiosity to ascertain by what means their bodies could be suspended in this manner One day I coaxed a young fellow up close by offering him a few plugs of tobacco and I found the explanation that a short hair halter was passed around the neck of the horse and both ends tightly braided into the mane at the withers, leaving a loop to hang under the neck. This made a sling into which the rider's elbow falls, taking the weight of his body on the upper arm. Into this loop the rider drops suddenly and fearlessly, leaving his heel to hang over the horse's back to steady him and also to restore him when he wishes to regain his upright position on the horse's back."

By 1890 when Hotchkiss rapid-fire guns had finally convenced the hostile Indians at Wounded Knee that further resistance to the white men was useless, cattle and cowmen had spread out over the plains. It was the beginning of a colorful era of cows, cowboys, Indians and especially horses, who were in the midst of all the activity.

This early period has been preserved for us in all its color and action by the great talents of men like Charles Russell, Frederic Remington, Charles Schreyvogel, Frank Tenny Johnson and others of that era. Following closely in Russell's footsteps (and a close friend of that great painter) was the cowboy artist Ed Borein, and then have emerged skilled western artists like George Phippen, Olaf Wieghorst, Nicholas Firfires, Charles La Salle, Burt Procter, Charlie Dye, Joe Beeler, James Reynolds, Robert Lougheed, James Boren, R. Brownell McGrew, Nick Eggenhofer, John Hampton and a score of others a distinguished list of fine artists that would take longer to recite than the story of Uncle Bill's operation.Many of these talented men are represented in the great art collection of the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center at Oklahoma City, the Whitney Gallery of Western

Art at Cody, Wyoming, and in famous art collections elsewhere. If there were no horses, all of these western artists would be hard put for subjects to cover their canvasses. It is significant that in Dr. Harold McCracken's The Charles Russell Book there are 150 illustrations in which horses appear, and in his The Frederic Remington Book there are 260 illustrations containing horses! For the contemporary book Olaf Wieghorst, horses are featured in 44 of the 49 illustrations. Keeping pace with the boom in horses, the boom in western art appears to have no end, and there must be some relationship.

Western literature was somewhat slow and rather suspect in its origins, being first mainly represented by the lurid tales in Dime Novels written by uninformed scribblers like Ned Buntline. The tone picked up with Owen Wister's Virginian, and then Zane Grey lifted western fiction up a notch. However, it was books produced by westerners like Andy Adams, Charlie Siringo, Will Barnes and Will James that really told it as it was.

It was in 1931 that I met the cowboy author-artist Will James. We both had headed in to Livingston, Montana, for the Frontier Days there and the town was filled with interesting people. Among those whom I met through a local rancher friend, James attracted my special interest not merely because he was then riding the crest of popularity through his various writings and drawings, but more especially because of his one book Smoky The Cowhorse. Following a theme somewhat similar to Anna Sewell's autobiography of the horse Black Beauty published earlier. These two books have had a tremendous emotional impact on readers of all ages. Thousands of copies, through many editions, were published - practical evidence of a recognition of the horse as man's most highly regarded and best trained animal partner.

Down the years hundreds of books devoted to horses have been written some by men and women who have a great knowledge of horses from "top-side" experience, and some by those who have done scholarly research on the origins, the evolution and the great influences of the horse on our society. Most of these writers have contributed in some degree to our current knowledge of the horses that now populate our West.

Arizona was the stated locale of Will James' book, but the same scenes could have been enacted in Texas, Montana, California or any of the territories in between, for it was in these general areas that the early American horse population had the most dramatic expansion and activity.

Holding the reins in mastery of a powerful, well-trained horse stirs within one a thrill even greater than being at the helm of a fast power boat or at the wheel of a powerful automobile.

There are many who have summed up this feeling of man for horses in eloquent terms. One was the statesman Patrick Henry, an ardent horseman, who declared: "There is something so striking and inexpressably beautiful in a fine horse that is impossible to describe." And these words of Will James: "To me, the horse is man's greatest, most useful, faithful and powerful friend."

As I look over a life that has involved horses and horse activities from the age of ten, I can think of no outdoor activity that has provided such a sense of exuberant well-being as that while astride a good horse. Nor can I think of any animal that has stirred in me stronger feelings of affection than that which springs from the partnership of a faithful horse. I guess those of us who have known horses can be forgiven for sometimes feeling like the old cowboy who opined: "Them as don't like a good hoss just ain't folks."

The boss's son fresh out of Aggie school rides the range in a radio equipped, air conditioned '385 horse' pickup. The two 1-horse cowboys are still going to do it their way. here's a big buzz going on around the old corral. Talk is that top dollar is now being paid for 'picture drawings' and 'art paintings' by such range broken, saddle worn Western artists as old Charlie Russell and Charles Frederic Remington. Everybody's asking if it's true.

The BIG BOOM in Western Art

Well, they can bet their solid silver Sunday spurs it's true, every single bit of it. For the first time in history, record six-figure prices are now being paid for works of art depicting America's frontier, and aesthetic shock waves, like sounds of gunshots and hoofbeats echoing from deep within the cragy, cactus-covered canyons of the Old West itself, are being heard and felt in leading art markets all over the world. The boom is on and most experts agree that for those tough, rugged, bean-fed frontier artists who knew the anatomy of horses the way Leonardo knew the anatomy of man, it's only just begun.

It was an overflow crowd that cold night in December, 1970, at the nation's leading auction house, New York's Parke-Bernet Galleries, which attracts the ultimate in glamour and social names as regularly as it attracts hawk-eyed art dealers of international renown. The gallery, appropriately abutting a major branch of the First National Bank, is located on Madison Avenue at 75th Street, directly across the street from the Carlyle Hotel where President John F. Kennedy while in office favored staying during his frequent New York visits. The display and auction rooms are on the third floor. Bidding was heavy. Heads shook in stunned dismay as Gilbert Stuart's Portrait of George Washington sold for a record $205,000, the highest price ever paid for an American work of art, only to be dramatically topped minutes later by Thomas Eakins' Cowboys in the Badlands, which sold for $210,000. At the same sale, Remington's Coming To The Call, a moose-shooting scene, went for $105,000, a record Remington. The gold rush in Western art was on.

By Ron Butler

The following night at Parke-Bernet, a Colonial painting by John Singleton Copley, Portrait of Thomas Gage, brought $210,000, equaling Thomas Eakins' Cowboys in the Badlands record as the highest auction price ever for an American work of art. A century apart, the two painters have much in common. Eakins' realistic appraisal of the American people of the 19th century is often compared in stature and maturity to Copley's pictorial record of Colonial America. Eakins would have enjoyed all the fuss. During his lifetime, he never had a one-man New York show nor even a New York dealer, and not a single article was ever published about his work. He died in 1916.

Higher prices for paintings and sculptures may be paid or assigned by private dealers and collectors, but public auctions are generally regarded to be the main barometer for trends in collecting. While the American art market was being caught up in a fervor of Western Americana, in England, on two successive days, both a Picasso mother and child and a superb early Renoir were withdrawn from sale for failure to reach their reserve prices. All important art works go into auction with minimum bids, or price reserves. If not reached, the owner or his representative technically buys the painting himself. The Renoir was predicted to bring $1.25 million. Bidding stopped at $725,000, and a hushed pall fell over the great chandeliered auction room at Sotheby's.

"People are nostalgic for the wide open spaces of Remington and Russell," says John Marion, head auctioneer and executive vice president of Parke-Bernet. "There seems to have been a very deep-rooted change in the sensibility of the public towards 200 years or more of American culture. The quality, the prices paid and