Patrick Dearen - Saddling Up Anyway: The Dangerous Lives of Old-Time Cowboys

SADDLING
UP
ANYWAY

THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF
OLDTIME COWBOYS

PATRICK DEAREN

Copyright 2006 by Patrick Dearen
First Taylor Trade Publishing edition 2006

This Taylor Trade Publishing hardback edition of Saddling Up Anyway is an original publication. It is published by arrangement with the author.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

Published by Taylor Trade Publishing
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dearen, Patrick.

Saddling up anyway : the dangerous lives of old-time cowboys / Patrick Dearen.1st

Taylor Trade Pub. ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-58979-223-4 (cloth: alk. paper)

1. CowboysWest (U.S.)Social life and customs. 2. CowboysWest (U.S.)History. 3. CowboysWest (U.S.)Biography. 4. Ranch lifeWest (U.S.) 5. Oral historyWest (U.S.) 6. West (U.S.)Social life and customs. I. Title.

F596.D383 2006

978.00922dc22

2005025248

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

For Richard Galle, my compadre of so many trails

adios, Jesus (interjection): a way of saying goodbye permanently, as in death; in this sense, the common Mexican name Jesus is pronounced Kuh-SOOS.

auger (verb): to engage in lively conversation.

booger (verb): to frighten.

break in two (verb): to begin pitching; said of a horse.

bronc (noun): a gelding that is none too gentle.

bronc buster (noun): one who breaks horses for riding purposes.

bust a bronc (verb): the act of breaking a horse for riding.

case of loco (noun): the state of being crazy.

chaps (noun): protective leather coverings for a riders legs; also known as leggings.

cheek (verb): to grip a bridle headstall and pull a horses head to its shoulder in prelude to mounting.

chouse (verb): to stir up cattle unnecessarily; often used metaphorically.

clabberhead (verb): an unpredictable horse lacking common sense.

cold jaw (verb): to avoid the pressure of a bit and refuse a riders command; said of a horse.

cowboy (verb): to perform the duties of a cowboy.

cut bedding (verb): to share a bedroll.

cut the figure eight (verb): to pitch in a twisting motion; said of a horse.

dally (verb): in roping, to secure a lariat to a saddle horn by wrapping it around two or three times, thus allowing for slippage; from the Spanish phrase dar la vuelta, or give a turn.

drags (noun): the animals at the rear of a marching herd.

drover (noun): a cowboy who drives cattle.

eternal brand (noun): death.

eternal range (noun): heaven.

fence-rower (noun): a horse that leaps frenziedly from one side to the other; said of a pitching horse.

forefoot (verb): to fell an animal by roping its front legs.

fork (verb): to straddle a horse; a forked rider is a superb horseman.

frogging it out (verb): to punish a horse by a method such as clubbing it in the skull with a quirt handle.

gig (verb): to spur a horse.

great divide (noun): death.

greenhorn (noun): an inexperienced cowboy.

hackamore (noun): a halter with a headpiece similar to a bridle and a band above the horses mouth in lieu of a bit.

high lonesome (noun): the remotest of locations.

leggings (noun): protective leather coverings for a riders legs; also known as chaps.

make a kick (verb): to complain.

mill (verb): to move in a circle.

outfit (noun): a ranch; a group of cowhands engaged in a cattle drive.

outlaw (noun): a vicious and untamable horse or bovine.

peg (verb): to plant the feet in anticipation of an impact at the end of a lariat; said of a roping horse.

pigeon-winger (noun): a horse that pitches as it takes flight straight ahead; a pigeon-winging bronc is an animal that does this.

point (noun): the front of a marching herd; (verb): to perform the duties of a cowboy riding point.

polled (adjective): without horns.

pull leather (verb): to clutch any part of a saddle to stay astride a pitching horse.

remuda (noun): a saddle horse herd.

sand in his gizzard (noun): courage.

screw down (verb): to sit as deep as possible in the saddle and dig spurs into the cinch.

see snakes (verb): to respond nervously to imagined dangers; said of a horse.

sky fire (noun): lightning and other electrical displays.

snake-blood (noun): an incorrigible horse that will pitch to exhaustion and lie down.

spook (verb): to unnerve.

stompede (noun): a cowboys way of saying stampede.

stove-up (adjective): physically disabled.

sun-fisher (noun): a horse that pitches by jumping to the side.

swallow his head (verb): to lower the head as a prelude to pitching; said of a horse.

top hand (noun): a cowboy respected for his experience and ability.

turn a cat (verb): to tumble.

tie hard and fast (verb): to secure a lariat firmly to a saddle horn by means of a figure eight knot.

vaquero (noun): a cowboy, especially one of Mexican descent.

waddy (noun): originally a temporary or fill-in cowboy, from the term wad or wadding, but later applied to any cowhand.

wiggler (noun): a horse that pitches by twisting its rear end in the air as it vaults forward to land on stiff forelegs.

wormy (adjective): infested with screwworms.

wrangler (noun): the cowboy responsible for looking after the saddle horse herd.

Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.

John Wayne