Reminiscing XV

This story is from James Greet, written in 1991 about his life as a cowboy in the 1940’s.

I went down and helped Johnny Tisdale on Box Elder Creek. He had some cattle to gather and some branding to do.

I ran short of a fresh mount one afternoon, so Johnny said he would stake me to a horse that his wife liked to ride. The horse was no beauty, you might say he was hardly wider than your hand – not much room for heart and lungs. I thought that I would end up carrying him home. Was I ever in for a surprise! He was a pleasure to ride. He was an eager worker, with a smooth gait. I used him pretty hard gathering cattle that afternoon, and he had energy to spare. When we got in that evening, I told Johnny that I could understand why his wife preferred to ride that special horse.

Another ride I remember was in mid May. We got word that we had a heifer and a bull down at a ranch on Lower Canyon Creek. Also a Roy Mills RM dry cow that belonged at Big Trails. That is a difference of fifteen miles. I rode down one day, and planned to come back the next day, but it rained, so I stayed over and helped them do some inside chores. This was the Dougherty [sic] Ranch. The next day, their son helped me out on the county road. All went well the first three miles or so. Then we came upon a bridge. It was floored with heavy planks. I got the heifer and dry cow across alright, but the bull refused. Well, the cow and heifer went on up the road, and soon would be out of sight. There was a fence on either end of the bridge, so there was no other choice. The bull was much too big to rope and drag across, besides I didn’t want to get him on the “prod”.

There was some old sheep shearing sheds, (Taylor’s) close by. I looked around and found a piece of barbed wire about three feet long – just what I needed. I folded it up and tied it in the end of my saddle rope while the bull was enjoying his victory.

My scourge ready, I drove the bull back a ways and turned him around. Then I “layed” into him with the barbed whip. I could see the hairs fly when I made contact. We were gaining speed, and when we reached the bridge, Mr. Bull thundered right across without any hesitation. We soon caught up with the other two. I tossed my scourge aside, as he was very easy to handle from there on. It makes a body feel good to be on the winning side. It was a beautiful day, and I made it home by sundown.

Find me here!

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