WILD WEST

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19597, 8 June 1935, Page 23 (Supplement)

WILD WEST

THE LAST ROUND-UP. HORSES OF THE RANGES. Horses that know no master still survive in Hie 'Far Fast. o\er the upland plateau of Idaho, (Ji'cgon, Washington, .Montana, and Nevada there yet gallop fleet ponies and bighoned “pull" horses whose teeth have never champed on a bit. In the remote reaohes of the Pacific Northwest the wild horse —a symbol of pioneer America —is making its last stand (says a writer in the New fork 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 Bridget'. The wild buffalo is gone; the traders and prospectors have vanished; the Indian is on his reservation, the blue-coated cavalryman of the old United Stales Army arc history. Sole survivor of Iho era which carved out Western America from the wilderness is the wild horse.

With Hie swift flight of Ihe years the bands of wild horses become smaller. Ranges which once thundered lo their haltering hoofs are silent, except for occasional desultory pounding in the distance. So sharply has Ihe wild horse declined numerically in Hie past decade Hint In Oregon last year the last largo packer of horse meat applied for a Government licence to can beef and sheep instead.

Wild-horse hands were as numerous as the grazing ranges in the Northwest immediately aflcr the World War. Following I ho Armistice, heavy-work horses of Ihe field had been replaced with tractors and turned loose In multiply In the wilderness. Wild

horses increased so rapidly they overran the highlands arid 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 lo pull ploughs. Once broken to the harness, they were turned out at night lo graze on open lands. They cost their owners* almost nothing. The demand for draught horses, combined with Ihe continued depreciations by Hie meat packers, eventually began to wipe out the once mighty herds of the West. Horse Moat. 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 creatures 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 Ilian 1100,000 of them into canned, smoked, and frozen horse meat.

'l'lie wild horse, inseparably identified though it is with early American history, is not native lo this contin-

ent. The steeds that now roam tho North-western United States arc descendants of tho horses brought from Europe by early colonists. Geologists contend that, the Irue five-toed horse originated, among oilier places, in what now is Eastern Oregon, but had disappeared completely by the time of Columbus. Even the mounts of the Indians were Ihe results of Importations from I lie Old World.

Cortez and his conquistadors brought the first horse to America, to be followed by slock from England. 'Belgium, Holland, and France. Gradually the slccds migrated across the continent or made llieir way northward from t-he deserts op Mexico. To Ibis 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. Unmlstakeable makings, such as black stripes about the legs and a black line extending from mane to tall 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 world. It is descended from stock that has reverted to type after centuries 01 iiomestication. The only true wild horse is found on the plains of Tibet. In the fastness of the 'Northwest country the wild horse is conVdered a renegade, even if lie sprang from regal lineage. A Daring Spot. Though most of the wild horses never have felt the pull of 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 only 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 Ihe cow-punch-ers of Hie Old West made it as bold as possible. A favourite method was to establish a relay of riders along -Hie route of a herd which actually grazed within a res trie Led area. The first cowboy would approach the horses, which then would speedily out-distance him. As quickly as one cowboy tried, another would take up the cliasc. This would continue day and night, never permitting the wild horses lo 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 Hiekoek and Jim Bridget- bad another method. They would lay a bullet along a wild horse's head “creasing" it. This stun-

ned 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"'llrst began, they were relatively easy lo catch. They had not yet learned to be wary of man and they did not fear ills approach. The riders merely would stake two or three lame horses in a blind canyons as decoys. When a band ol- 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 000 horses tills way. But as the wild steeds dwindled In number, those remaining became as crafty as hunted foxes. They had, to bo trapped, a procedure which must be followed to-day. Inglorious End. Farmers or ranchers desirous of procuring a few of the wild fuzzlails found it easiest lo calcli the elusive creatures by trapping them in corrals built round frequented watcrholes. Out for larger numbers and-quicker results the hunters would undertake elaborate “drives." A good-sized corrall would he 11 1 c focal point, and a cleverly camouflaged fence would lie built, to form converging wings.

Shooting and hallooing, Hie cowhands would chase the wild horses towards the outspread fences, driving Ilicm into illc corral below.

The packing plants of ihe 'Northwest provided an inglorious end for Hie monarch,s of the plains, fl’lie lender flesh at liesl sold extensively in shops opened for the purpose, but Ihe falling price of beef ended llial, market for horse meat. The meat is more popular abroad.

This, then, seems Ihe ullimalo destiny of Ihe wild horse —from Ihe uplands of Ihe West to the cauldrons of a. packing plant. But Hie muslangwrnnglei's arrived on llieir raids less each year, anil 'llmre is perhaps an ..p----porlunity for Hie horse lo survive in ils last-stand against rnan. II lias no other enemies to fear intensely.