WILD WEST

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20106, 13 May 1935, Page 2

WILD WEST

THE LAST ROUND-UP HORSES OF THE RANGES Horses that Know no master still survive in the Far West. Over the upland plateaus of Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Nevada there yet gallop fleet ponies and bigboned “pull” horses whose teeth have never champed on a bit. In the remote reaches of the Pacific North-west the wild horse—a symbol of pioneer America—is making its last stand (says a writer in the “New York Times”). Trapped by meat packers, harassed by predatory animals, the wild horse outspeeds these perils and continues to be the last remnant of the Old West — the West of Lewis and Clark, Kit Carson, and Jim Bridger. The wild bufrfalo is gone; the traders and prospectors have vanished; the Indian is on his reservation; the blue-coated cavalryman of the old United States Army are history. Sole survivor of the era which carved out Western America from the wilderness is the wild horse. With the swift flight of the years the bands of wild horses become smaller. Ranges which once thundered to their battering hoofs are silent, except for occasional desultory pounding in the distance. So sharply has the wild horse' declined numerically in the past decade that in Oregon last year the last large packer of horse meat applied for a Government licence to can beef and sheep instead. Wild-horse bands were as numerous as the grazing ranges in the Northwest immediately after the World War. Following the Armistice, heavy-work horses of the field had been replaced with tractors and turned loose to multiply in the wilderness. Wild hqrses increased so rapidly they overran the highlands and pastures. But the economic collapse in the financial centres of the world eventually made itself felt even in their carefree lives. As the prices of grain tumbled, farmers no longer could afford to buy gasoline for tractors. Wild horses were rounded up by thousands to pull ploughs. Once broken to the harness, they were tuned out at night to graze on open lands. They cost their owners almost nothing. The demand for draught horses, combined with the continued depreciations by the meat packers, eventually began to wipe out the once mighty herds of the West. Horse Meat Ten years ago Federal officials estimated the wild horses of the Northwest at more than a million. Judging by the complaints of stockmen, who saw these fleet-footed creatues feeding on the grazing lands needed for cattle and sheep, it appears that the estimate was a conservative one. So flourishing were the bands that packing plants began round-up and slaughter of what seemed an endless supply of free animals. A single Oregon packer turned more than 300,000 of them into canned, smoked, and frozen horse meat. The wild horse, inseparably indentified though it is with early American history, is not native to this continent. The steeds that now roam the North-western United States are descendants of the horses brought from Europe by early colonists. Geologists contend that the true five-toed horse originated, among other places, in what now is Eastern Oregon, but had disappeared completely by the time of Columbus. Even the mounts of the Indians were the results of importations from the Old World.

Cortez and his conquistadors brought the first horse to America, to be followed by stock from England, Belgium, Holland, and France. Gradually the steeds migrated across the continent or made their way northward from the deserts or Mexico. To this day cowboys and range-riders of the West say they can discern indications of Arabian lineage in the wild horses which still survive in America. Unmistakeahle markings, such as black stripes about the legs and a black line extending from mane to tail along the spine, make these rare “throw-backs” keen prizes. The present American wild horse is not a wild creature in the strict sense of the word. It is descended from stock that has reverted to type after centuries of domestication. The onlytrue wild horse is found on the plains of Tibet. In the fastness of the North-west country the wild horse is considered a renegade, even if he sprang from regal lineage.

A Daring Sport Though most of the wild horses never have felt the pull cf a halter, some of them only a few years ago were hauling ploughs and carrying riders on Washington and Montana wheat farms. They were either turned loose by their owners or they answered the call of their unbroken brethren and crashed corral and fence to escape. These creatures, once doing man’s bid at a sharp command from him, became as untamed as horses that have lived on the range all their lives. It requires anly the human scent to send them scampering over ridge and along canyon bed, a magnificent spectacle of flying manes and flashing hoofs.

Running wild horses is a thrilling and daring sport. And the cowpunchers of the Old West made it as bold as possible. A favourite method was to establish a relay of riders along the route of a herd which actually grazed within a restricted area. The first cowboy would approach the horses, which then would speedily outdistance him. As quickly as one cowboy tired another would take up the chase. This would continue day and night, never permitting the wild horses to eat or drink. Finally they would halt from utter exhaustion and be easy prey. The system was impracticable and never resulted in large hauls, but it was real sport. Keen-eyed sharpshooters like Wild Bill Hickock and Jim Bridger had another method. They would lay a bullet along a wild horse’s headier easing” it. This stunned the steed long enough for cowpunchers to come up and slip on a halter. The rise of the packing industry precluded such vivid but erratic methods. The business demanded great quantities of wild horses. In 1924, when mass slaughter of the “fuzztails” first began, they were relatively easy to catch. They had not yet learned to be wary of man and they did not fear his approach. The riders merely would stake two or three tame horses in a blind canyons as decoys. When a band of wild mustangs had gathered about their domesticated and tethered brethren, the cowboys would encircle the band and herd it into camp. A day’s work would gather 500 or 600 horses this way. But as the wild steeds dwindled in number, those remaining became as jrafty as hunted foxes. They had to be trapped, a procedure which must be followed to-day. Inglorious End Farmers or ranchers desirous of procuring a few of the wild fuzztails found it easiest to catch the elusive creatures by trapping them in corrals built round frequented waterholes.

But for larger numbers and quicker results the hunters would undertake elaborate “drives.” A good-sized corral would be the focal point, and a cleverly camouflaged fence would be built to form converging wings. Shooting and hallooing, the cowhands would chase the wild horses towards the outspread fences, driving them into the corral below. The packing plants of the North, west provided an inglorious end for the monarchs of the plains. The tender flesh at first sold extensively in shops opened for the purpose, but the falling price of beef ended that market for horse meat. The meat is more popular abroad. This, then, seems the ultimate destiny of the wild horse—from the uplands of the West to the cauldrons of a packing plant. But the mustangyear, and there is perhaps an opporwranglers ride on their raids less each tunity for the horse to survive in its last stand against man. It has no other enemies to fear intensely.